LOSeRS
by Tight Hold On Death
Summary: Wow! Possibly out of hiatus! - The Class of E goes on a trip to Norway, with all their horrible luck. And just with their luck, they manage to end up with the responsibility of making sure the world doesn't end. /OC story/
1. Road To Hell

**THOD - **Here it is. LOSeRS. And this time, it's all from Nick's POV. Now, just to settle the time-line a bit, LOSeR took place somewhere around August/September. Let's pretend LOSeR was in 2007, that means that this story takes place in May 2009, since they're near the end of their Sophomore year. Just to make this clear. :D And most of the facts I will use later are true facts, but I'm making up a lot of things just because I can. And no, I won't spoil more.

Haha, so, let's set off into the world of LOSeRS!

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 1  
Road To Hell_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

"... and that's why we chose this destination," Paul said, tapping the blackboard with her foot idly, surveying the sea of confused faces that made up our classroom.

Stan's hand shot into the air, "But-but-but why!"

"Because we were assigned Norse Mythology, arse," Marko groaned, "Alas, me and Paul chose the destination based on that. After all, we're both familiar with the place so we thought it'd be simpler for us all,"

"No one here can speak the language, Paul," Kenny deadpanned from the front row, openly scowling, "How do you expect us to run around and be annoying?"

"Ah, fault in facts!" Paul exclaimed, both of her feet hitting the floor with a triumphant thud as she pointed to the roof for some reason, "Kate knows enough to run around. So does Kyle, anyway, and I think Lulu knows some,"

"Alright, alright, point taken,"

"Awesome," Marko clapped her hands happily, "Then we'll all be going to Norway to study Norse Mythology for two months! Great!"

A heavy silence wrapped itself around us, and I shivered in my seat. This had disaster written all over it.

"We're all going to die, ain't we?" Craig said dully, a few others nodding in agreement.

We all knew it.

"Maybe," Paul shifted in her seat anxiously, laughing sheepishly, "But really, people! Cheer up! It'll be great!"

"... yep, we're going to die,"

* * *

It's somewhere in May, to put it clearer; the day May we died. With that clouding our minds we're all heading towards the airport that will bring us to our doom, all a bit anxious. Cause if you think Freshman year was anything then I'm sure you'll love Sophomore year. Men in the mafia with gun's ain't got nothing on this.

Right now I'm standing outside Kathleen Dear's own pretty front door, waiting for Kevin and Kenny to pick us up, enjoying a few rays of sunshine for once.

I've really gotten attached to these insane people after I started school some time ago, with the whole ordeal last year and all. By now I'm pretty much one of them. It was great. Really, really great.

But us seven... we're kind of the core of our own little group of people. We lead our kind in this battle between stereotypes. Cause, y'know, our entire year has split into a number of groups, and we're all at war.

Kinda.

There might have been a few huge bruises, soaking wet people and spray-painted scooters around, but I'm not going to comment on that. Because it's a long and complicated story.

"So..." Kate started from beside me, grinning hesitantly, "Did I ever get around apologizing for mistaking your for Stan and drenching you in mud?"

I deadpanned, "Yes. Several times,"

"Oh, sorry," Kate bit her lip, shoving her hands into the pockets of her skinny-jeans, a slight smirk on her face.

She'd changed over the year or so I'd known her.

Going from average tomboy Kate to a bit more... punk-ified version of herself. I know most of us did a double take when she – out of nowhere - came to school wearing a pitch black hoodie, hood covering her face as if she were attempting to be Helene.

Even now she had her hood up, dull blue eyes scouting the road for any sight of our ride, playing with the bottom of her shirt as usual. I swear, she goes insane whenever she doesn't have something to mess around with. Those hands can't stay still for half a second, which is both amusing and incredibly annoying.

"I've kind of got a bad feeling," Kate mumbles as the old pickup could be seen speeding down the road, "You know what day it'll be in three weeks?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I know," I grumbled, picking up my bag and struggling under the weight of it as I basically tripped down the stairs.

"Nick! Wait up!" Kate whined as she realized I wouldn't help her with her things, "I can't carry all my junk myself!"

"Get Kenny to help you," I said over my shoulder, grinning slyly, "You know he'd do anything for you after the fight,"

"Nick!" she exclaimed as I dropped my bag onto the back of the pickup, snickering at the obvious embarrassment in her voice.

Not really bothering anymore with her I opened the door, pushed some junk off the seat and slipped in, leaving a bit of space for Kate beside me. Kenny just patted my head as usual, not saying a word as he eyed Kate dragging her bags.

Sure, the car was small, dirty and smelled like rotting beavers, but it rolled us around 24/7. While Kevin worked two days a week and drove us around the remaining five days, we lived the perfect lives.

Not counting the whole stereotype-war going on at school, of course, but again, that's another story.

"Nick, you incompetent douche! You could at least pretend to care!" Kate snapped as she paused, grinning to Kenny and Kevin briefly, before going back to glaring at me.

"Hey," I shrugged as we sped off down the road, "I can't care about everything. You just happen to be one of the least important priorities I have,"

"That was idiotic," she crossed her arms, "Lousy boy,"

"Uh-huh," I rolled my eyes, leaning back into the uncomfortable seats and decided to switch topic, "Wonder what it'll be like. Norway, I mean,"

"It'll be great," Kenny cut into our conversation, "We'll get killed, end up in some sort of Norse hell and all be damned for eternity!"

"... or we could just have a good time," Kate suggested, eyebrow raised sceptically, "And there is no actual hell in Norse Mythology, only Hel, the world of the dead or whatever,"

"Ooh, goodie," Kenny said, rolling his eyes and smirking, "Then we won't have to run through dozens of lava-lakes or fight demons. But hey, maybe there's hot chicks,"

"More like every chick that ever died," Kate smirked, "At least all the ones that... well, believed in it. I think. I have no idea, really,"

"Then don't say it," I pouted, "Car is stuffed. Don't use up all the oxygen for your incompetent babbling about things you can't grasp,"

"Yeah, yeah," Kate gave me a look, "Whiner," she added under her breath, flipping me off as I shrugged and leaned back.

* * *

I never really liked sleeping in cars, but with the almost hazardous smell in the car and the standard small-talk between Kate and Kenny, I found it much better to break the no-sleeping habit than to listen about their quite detailed conversations about sex and other things I'd rather not think about again. And because of this I had no idea for how long we'd been driving, where we'd been and what people had done to my face while I was dreaming of puppies and cotton candy.

Because I don't trust Kenny and Kate in a car with sharpies. Last time my face came out covered in horribly drawn penises and boobs.

"Nick... that's a plane!" Kate stated excitedly, effectively waking me up as Kevin parked the car in the middle of two parking lots, taking up more space than ever necessary.

"Yes, I know," I shook my head, trying to shake away the sleep from my head, "And that's Paul by the entrance over there, scaring away other people,"

"Including me. C'mon, let's just turn and leave," she grimaced as I leaned over her and opened the door, frowning at her.

"No, we're going in there, so get out of the car," I snapped, "Besides, they have free stuff on airplanes,"

"Really?"

"Uh... sure," I smirked as Kate jumped out of the car, grinning widely with her mind on free little soaps and food.

Truth was, I've never been on a plane and have no fucking idea what they do on them or what you could steal on them.

We, also known as Kenny and me, slipped out of the car in a much calmer way than Kate, swiftly grabbing our heavy baggage and deciding to not thank Kevin for driving us. Because we don't have manners. As I picked up my bag I once again faltered under the weight of it, mentally cursing my lack of muscle and freakishly many injuries. They kind of get in the way when you want to carry large things, if I'm gonna be honest.

"You alright?" Kenny waved idly over his shoulder as we heard the car start up behind us, "You look tortured, man,"

"I'm cool," I scowled and kept walking, "Just some fucking shoe digging into my back," I added, sighing.

"Uh-huh," he raised an eyebrow, "Whiner,"

"Shut up!" I snapped, blowing some hair out of my face and glaring at him, "I don't whine!"

Manly men don't do no complaining. And I'm a manly man!

... seriously.

"Hurry up!" Kate called from the airport entrance, grinning widely as Paul shoved her in through the door with a glare.

"How can she run that fast with all that luggage when she didn't even manage to carry it earlier?" I asked as we saw Kate running over to the others inside, all of them visible through the glass-walls, "It's unfair,"

"Everything's unfair," Kenny smacked the back of my head, "You know that, homo,"

"I'm not homo!" I snapped, pouting, "Didn't we already have this discussion?"

"Yeah," Kenny smirked, "And we figured you're gay,"

"No, we didn't," I huffed as we reached the airport's shiny sliding doors, Paul nodding to us as we did, "We figured you're gay,"

"No..." Kenny paused, "We figured Craig is gay!"

"There ya go," I grinned as I dumped my bag beside the rest of our class, instantly taking a seat on a bench and sighing in relief.

No. More. Bag!

"Nick and Kenny's here," Frankie said loudly, barely looking away from her own conversation as Marko nodded and wrote something down on a stack of paper she had in her hand.

Frankie was talking to Kate over by a bench and Jude stood beside them, drooling over Stan as she leaned on the side of the bench. Craig looked half-asleep as he leaned on Kate's shoulder, probably struggling to stay awake and from what I could see, Jess sitting by his feet was also very half-asleep.

Damn. Tired much?

I turned back to Kenny when Marko decided to burst into hysteric laughter out of nowhere, after having been in a quiet discussion with herself for a few minutes. And I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry right now. Because seriously, what the hell?

"Alright, then we're only two people short..." she scratched her head as if she'd never had her earlier outburst, "Oh, wait, that's me and Paul!"

A few people sighed, including me, as Marko laughed sheepishly and crossed of the two last names with a grin, looking quite proud of herself.

Dolts. Fucking dolts.

"Great! And here comes Paul, so I guess we're almost set to go?" Marko smirked as Paul stopped behind us, picking up a pretty big, yellow bag with scribbles all over it and proceeded to give us all a blank look.

"We're set," Paul confirmed, tilting her head and letting her dark hair fall over her face, "Everyone got their stuff and is ready to go? Cause I've got mine and I'm gonna go now," she said bluntly, doing a very Paul-like thing and just walking off in a random direction without another word.

"We better follow her," Marko rolled her eyes, "Or she'll get lost and we'll never find her again,"

"Really?" Craig raised his eyebrow, finally waking up, "Would that be really bad? And is it even safe to bring her along?"

Marko frowned, shrugging, "Probably not, but what can we do? She's got the tickets,"

"Oh shit!"

Almost everyone of us swept up our stuff and set off after her, no one wanting her to get lost with our precious tickets, so we ignored how heavy our bags were and simply ran. Marko once again laughed hysterically as she pushed past people, grinning like a madman as the entire class E sprinted through the different halls of the airport, looking for our missing teacher.

And here we go again.

* * *

**THOD - **Yeeah, a bit failed. More like really failed and very short, but here it is. LOSeRS.

Read&review and I'll be super happy! And super thanks to all of you people that reviewed on LOSeR! :D


	2. Yes! Sex Is Always The Answer

**THOD - **God. I've been so slow. xD But this is Chapter 2, anyway. Nothing much going on, but there are some bloody important clues laying around here. :D And all the review make me giggle madly. :D

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 2  
Yes! Sex Is Always The Answer_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

You can only run so far with a heavy bag. Though, for once, I was in luck. Because Paul is incredibly lazy. After about ten minutes of us running around at random, trying to find her, we all stopped to let us people with no stamina take a break.

Guess who fucking taps on my shoulder, looking all innocent, and asks what we're doing?

It took us all ten seconds to process this, and when we did, it kind of reversed it all.

Paul yelped and ran as fast as she could down the hall, nearly reaching the small 7/11 before we tackled her and piled up on top of her. Despite this most likely giving me permanent back-problems, it's kind of hilarious now that we're sitting in these stuffy little chairs, whining about all the fucking kids kicking the back of our seats.

Even though Paul is still giving us these odd looks, but we brushed it off as her being insane. Which we already knew, but who fucking cares. Apparently, she though we just randomly jumped her.

Weirdo.

"Hey Nickers,"

I sighed, a bit fed up with this fancy nickname of mine, but craned my neck to look at Jess, whom sat in the seat behind me. From the slightly unusual angle everything was a bit screwed up, kind of tilted. And I could look down the front of her shirt.

Heh. Boobs.

"Yeah, Jess?" I asked, grimacing at how even my voice sounded a bit tilted, if that was even possible.

"I was just wondering how you're doing," she shrugged, "After being crushed by everyone else in that pile of flailing limbs,"

"Eeh, I'm fine," I croaked, smirking, "What about you? Got your pretty little head bruised?"

She rolled her eyes, grinning, "I was on top, dude, I didn't get hurt," she yawned, leaning back in the seat, "Besides, I'm too awesome to get bruised,"

"You wish you were," I mumbled and turned back, figuring she was going to sleep again, drumming my fingers on my thigh and feeling unusually restless.

Craig sat on my right with Kate sleeping on him, which he didn't give a rats ass about, cause he was just as asleep as her. Meaning that they were excluded as sources of amusement. And Stan was on my other side, sulking slightly for reasons I can't even be bothered to find out.

Because I don't fucking care. And he's dull.

We'd been in the air for almost six hours now, I think. I can't feel my ass, I can't feel my legs and I think the old lady three rows behind me died, cause it smells like old farts in here. Then again, that might just have been someone farting, but you can't be too sure.

Or maybe you could just hope, since I'm not sure I could handle her loud complaining about her husband snoring.

Basically, I'm never going on a fucking plane again. It's shitty. No space for your legs and no space for your luggage, which means I have nothing at all to drink, and I'm dying of thirst. I almost want to sneak over Craig and steal Kate's bottle, but I'd rather not crawl over his fucking lap to get it.

"I'm bored," I announced boldly, frowning, "Someone entertain me,"

"How about this," Paul turned in her seat in front of me, scowling, "If you don't shut up I'll pull a James Bond-style flip over this fucking seat, grab you," her eyebrow twitched irritably, "Run to the nearest door and throw you the fuck out. Sounds good to you?"

You see, I'm not the only one that dislikes planes. Paul, we found out, hates them and have yelled at pretty much everything three times or more. But I, of course, have no common sense and don't give a rats ass about her bad mood, since I do know she's far to lazy to actually throw me off this plane anyway.

"I didn't know James Bond even did that kind of stuff," I pointed out, raising an eyebrow as she glared at me, her hand twitching as if she wanted to wrap it around my throat and choke me.

Alright, maybe I was wrong about her not actually throwing me off the plane...

"He fucking does now. So shut it and go to sleep, cock-knocker!"

She turned back abruptly, mumbling curses under her breath. And I'm very much so sure that she will throw me off this plane, if her horror-movie style creepiness is anything to go by. Which only adds to our theory of her being plain insane, in a both good and bad way.

What kind of teacher threatens to throw their students out of a plane, anyway?

The mafia kind, probably. After the whole Darren-issue in Freshman year, Paul had pulled us all into homeroom one day and told us to sit down and shut the fuck up. She launched into this little speech of how easy it would be for someone else of us to be tricked into the mafia, even telling us which people to stay away from.

Kate had been the rude one to ask how in the bloody world Paul knew anything about this. And it pretty much spiraled into this long, quite interesting and serious conversation that lasted until fifth period. Of course, Marko got started on writing notes for us so the other teachers would give us detention for missing class and we all got to skip sixth period.

I know that I'll never forget that day in a hundred years. Those two are the most awesome teachers ever. Kind of. When they're not mad.

Marko is the least violent one, I guess. But she's still pretty darn scary.

And why, per say, do I always end up with clinically insane or horribly creepy people?

Drat.

"Nickey," Craig nudged me, frowning, "Stop thinking. We're landing,"

"Huh?" I blinked, barely catching the 'are-you-stupid' glare I got.

"Landing. Plane meets ground," Craig nudged Kate, deciding that I'd gotten the point by now.

Yeah, I can't even decide for myself what I understand around here.

"Alright," I sighed, obviously having missed the message over the intercom, "Let's just hope we don't crash,"

* * *

"We didn't crash!" Marko cheered as she skipped away from the rest of us, Paul being forced to carry her bag as the incredibly energetic teacher skipped through Gardemoen Flyplass excitedly.

"Is it really necessary to make us look like fools?" Laura McCarthy asked as she dragged her bag behind her, staring at the over-happy Marko hugging a bench with bemused eyes.

Said teacher then proceeded to try to rape this bench, despite Marko not being a man and probably not actually capable of raping anything. I think.

Is it possible for women to rape things?

I've never really thought about it.

"If she's having a good time, Alice thinks it's alright," Alice Lufkin said with a slight shrug, smiling slightly as she watched the odd, Norwegian writing on the signs curiously.

After one of the kids in our class had moved away, Alice had been the one to move over to our class for reasons the teachers hadn't bothered to explain. Probably because our class was already so small, they had to even out the numbers.

But I'm not quite sure.

It could be a plot to kill us all, but we're going to stay positive and hope they don't want to rip us apart and sell us as food to children in Africa.

"Are we in Oslo?" Frankie asked as we looked out at the cars that parked outside the walls and dropped people off, before leaving and heading to their somewheres.

Glass walls again. Heh, I don't mind. Glass walls make me happy, cause you can crush them. And then it rains pretty sparkling shards of ouch.

Did I ever mention I'm a bit morbid?

"We're about..." Paul trailed off, shrugging, "Fifty kilometers north of Oslo. Why?"

"Cause it says Oslo Airport," Frankie pointed to a sign, "Why is it called that if it's not in Oslo?"

"... Oslo is a selfish town," Paul cast a glance over her shoulder to make sure we were all here, "Besides, this way it's easier to blame all the accidental deaths on someone,"

"Right..." Frankie gave Paul an odd look, raising a thin eyebrow, "And you've put a lot of thought into this?"

"Of course!" Paul pouted, "I put a lot of thought into everything,"

"Sure you do," Craig drawled, smirking, "You really put a lot of thought into that field trip last year, didn't you?"

Paul gave him a sour look, "No. Marko put a lot of thought into that,"

"Right, blame her," Craig mumbled as we entered a much wider and less crowded part of the airport, no one actually bothering to make sure everyone was with us.

Because Paul and Marko were a bit... irresponsible at times, you could say. Despite Paul and Marko's tales of insanity, neither of them had actually learned that it was important to be responsible.

Nor cared, I'm afraid.

"Look at me! I can fly!" Marko exclaimed as she stood on a bench, giggling madly and waving her arms around, "Just like last time we were here!"

Paul grinned, "And I'mma cowboy. I can fuck you," she pointed to a random lady, whom gave her a partly disgusted and partly confused glance, clutching her little purse tighter to her ugly shirt, "While shootin' your mother!" she finished, pretending to hold a gun and shoot another random person passing by.

"Uh, Paul?" Kyle asked as we all stopped around Marko's airplane-became-spaceship bench, "You did get us a bus, right?"

"Bus!" Marko cried, throwing her hands into the air, "There's a sheep in the bus!"

"Jesus Christ," Kate mumbled, giving Marko's arm a well-deserved whack, "Would you please gather your mind, come back to Earth and find us transportation?"

"But we already have transportation!" Marko whined, crossing her arms and frowning, "Stop ruining my space-adventure!"

"What do you mean we already have transportation?" Kate scowled, "Then why are we standing here like idiots?"

"Because you are," Paul shrugged, pointing through the giant window and to a bus standing outside, the driver standing beside it with a sign saying 'South Park High School's Class Soph E' on it.

"... uh, alright, why didn't you point this out to us before?" I asked, sighing as Marko jumped off the bench with an unnecessarily loud shout.

"I dunno," Paul grinned, "Maybe you all were just too stupid to notice,"

"Besides, people are staring," Stan passed us, waving meekly to an older couple glaring at us, "It's kind of... odd,"

Craig, on the other hand, simply flipped them off and started towards the bus, "Screw them, I'm hungry,"

"Why didn't you eat on the plane?" Kenny asked, picking up his bag as our group of misfits started moving, "They even had cookies,"

"Who the fuck would want those cookies?" Craig made a face, "Not even Cartman ate them,"

"Wow," I once again faltered under the weight of my bag, "Those cookies must have been shit,"

"Literally," Jess nodded, "And you're sure you're alright?"

Jess shifted her bag halfheartedly, glancing over at me and grinning widely, some of her hair falling in front of her face. I admit, I find Jess very pretty. Not that she knows, or ever will, but yeah.

I'd totally take her to bed, if I get my drift.

"Yes," I muttered as we reached the bus, "I'm fine. Just fucking tired and sick of dealing with those two," I nodded in Marko and Paul's direction.

"I think they're funny;" Johnny Sandders jumped into our conversation, pushing up his glasses with one hand, "Highly amusing,"

"They scare me," Clyde mumbled, grimacing and shoving his bag into the luggage-storage in the bus, frowning.

Everyone knew Clyde lied. He was terrified of Paul but had the biggest crush ever on Marko. He was always the one to volunteer to help her with things, sometimes even going as far as to help Paul for some reason. Not that he'd ever admit, or tell her. Which meant it was all a lost cause, since Marko is as clueless as one can get.

She was a bit older than him, too, if you want to look at it like that.

So all in all, Clyde was just another addition to our little freak-parade.

"Everything scares you," Jess elbowed him, laughing, "I bet you we'll find something that'll scare you later, too,"

Of course, Jess was right. We would find something that scared Clyde shitless later on. And to be all honest, it scared me too.

* * *

**THOD - **God, another shitty chapter. D: I honestly don't like this chapter, but yeah. Is it alright? If it's not, I'll rewrite it for ya'll. :D

Read&review! :D It makes me happy!


	3. You Could Have It All

**THOD - **Sorry for being so slow! D: I had vacationing and personal life to try unravel. :D But here it is~ with a few hints to the plot, too!

And we'll soon see the two new OC's, too! Haha! :D Though, here's a question; What's your favorite song?

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 3  
__You Could Have It All_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

We had, after about ten minutes of arguing and trying to get our luggage to not fall out of the bus, found out that the bus-driver was one of Marko and Paul's old classmates.

Which was both good and bad.

Paul detested him, it seemed, but somehow managed to hide her dislike well enough to carry out a decent conversation, and I gotta say I'm surprised. I'd always thought Paul had no self-control at all. But jaw clenched, fists shaking and eyes completely void of any clues to how she felt she marched onto the bus and hid in the back, sulking.

In fact, I'm a bit baffled. I'd never really thought of Paul as an actual human being with feelings. I'd been leaning more towards defect robot, but it seems I was wrong. About both Paul and Marko.

Latter of the two mentioned came onto the bus later, looking incredibly thoughtful and focused for her usual ADHD-self. She'd then managed to bang her knee against a seat – God knows how she did that – and just blinked stupidly, mumbling something and taking a seat. In normal cases Marko would've freaked and yelled about alien attacks.

But that was about... many hours ago. The two of them were still sulking, and so was the bus-driver, it seemed. Fucking drama.

"How long we been in this bus?" Jess mumbled, yawning as she played somewhat halfheartedly on Kate's beloved GameBoy in hopes of passing time.

"Uuh... hours," I shrugged, leaning against the cool glass of the bus-window, thoughts drifting away from the shocking revelation of having human teachers.

"Days," Jess shut off the GameBoy and handed it back to Kate, whom sat across from us, "Many, many long days,"

I felt a tug at my heart as she said the line that had been gnawing at my mind for years, effectively making my thoughts take a complete turn. Those simple, meaningless words always reminded me of what I'd done. Of the empire of dirt I've built around me, the people I've let down down and those I hurt. And how it always seems to kill whatever moment of cheerfulness I have.

Everyone's done something bad, haven't they?

Is it normal to never let it go?

"People!" Paul broke through my thoughts, "Listen up, douches,"

"Would you stop calling us that?" Wendy Testaburger snapped, "It's annoying,"

"Your face is annoying," Paul said carelessly, "Now, we're entering Magnor, the town we'll be staying in since I know a gal that drives this awesome hotel-motel-farm place. I've split you all up, and when we arrive I'll let you know who your roommates are, but for now, just make sure you grab all your things when leaving the bus, savvy?"

Of course we got it. We're not retarded. Not that anyone actually said such things in fear of waking up covered in sharpie-doodles. We'd all heard the stories of Paul and Marko's adventures. And no one wanted to know if it was lies or truth, to say it like that.

"Finally!" Jess grinned, shoving her water-bottle into her messenger bag swiftly, "No more sitting down like some sort of... dying... clown!"

"That's one way of saying it," I grabbed my backpack as the bus turned onto a gravel-road, the scarce house popping up between the numerous fields and trees fading completely, making me even more curious about where we were headed.

The right side of the road was littered with fields of corn and even a huge ski-jump situated on a hill across a group of trees and a river. Trees scraped the bus' left side, another field cutting through the trees and showing us the beautiful nature that surrounded us. It's quite interesting, going from snow-covered mountain to a small farming-village of some sort.

"Wow," Kate breathed, "Horses!"

"You ride, girl?" Paul asked, standing in the middle of the bus, grinning.

"Yeah," Kate pressed herself against the window, "Of course,"

"Then I'm sure you'll love this place," Paul mumbled, smirking as we finally caught sight of where we would be living for the next two months.

The first thing that caught my attention was the herd of horses. There had to be at least sixty of them, grassing calmly on a wonderfully green field below the house. The house itself was situated on top of a small hill, six or seven other buildings littered around it. Three stories high and painted red it overlooked the horses and the neighbors across the river, along with the giant mass of forest surrounding everything.

"Home, sweet home," Paul whispered, barely audible over the bus' engine, "Alright, welcome to Berget!"

* * *

I thought the farm looked big from afar, but it was nothing short of huge up close. The buildings were all painted in a fresh red, scattered around seemingly randomly, some even half-hidden by the forest. Two big stables. Four houses. Two other buildings and a giant barn for something else.

And don't even get me started on the dog-houses and all the animals.

I'd found my bag, to my displeasure, and had decided it was suitable as a make-shift chair as we waited for Paul to return from the main building. Not that it mattered, it was warm enough outside, and always something to look at.

People were scurrying in and out of the buildings, some of them looking like they lived here on a permanent business and some looking more like tourists. A few people were saddling up horses outside the stable, the radio blaring from where they stood with the fine tunes of Nirvana.

All in all, this is pretty much how I'd been imagining paradise.

"I wonder if they'll let us ride," Kate said excitedly, barely managing to stand still as she kept shifting her weight from foot to foot, "That would be so great,"

"I'm not sure I've ever been on a horse," Johnny grimaced, "But I guess that could be... fun?"

"Ooh, I could teach you!" Kate beamed, tackling the poor boy into a hug and pulling away just as suddenly, "It would be so cool!"

"... sure," Johnny raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused, "If we even get to borrow the horses,"

"Nonsense!" Kate pouted, "They will. Or they'll feel the wrath of the Katester!"

"Because that would actually scare them?" I deadpanned, earning myself a sour look, "Honestly. You're harmless,"

"Am not," she flipped me off, though instantly turning her good mood back on again.

Thankfully, we didn't have to suffer through much more of her babbling about everything pretty and wonderful about the world.

"Listen up!" Paul hollered, exiting the main building with Marko and an unknown, old woman in tow, "Oi! That means shut the fuck up, alright?"

"Fucking hell, stop swearing!" Robyn O'Neil barked, crossing her arms with a roll of her eyes, "We heard you the first time,"

"Then why didn't you shut the fuck up?" Paul shot back, raising an eyebrow, "Anyway. Rooming! I've got a list of available rooms, which are all in Building Two, which is over there,"

Paul pointed to a huge, red barn with oddly many windows standing half-into the woods, "You douches will be sleeping there. Me and Marko will be sleeping in there," she pointed to the main building, "Because we're just so fucking awesome we can. Which means that we'll appoint three responsible people to make sure none of you asses do anything we disapprove of,"

Killjoy.

"Though, there's not many rules. Back to roommates, eh, in room 6 there will be Kenny, Token and Stan. Stan, you're in charge of rooms 6 to 8. Got that?" Paul finished, glaring at him.

Stan raised an eyebrow, but shrugged carelessly, "Sure,"

"If you fail, I'll maul you," she added, "Room 7 would be Nick, Craig and Miles..." she continued this listing, losing my attention after calling my name.

Truth is, I don't give a rats ass about who gets roomed with who. I just want to unpack my junk and look around, without Paul's swearing or anyone else bothering me.

Being alone has, after all, always been the best cure to my problems.

* * *

"Here we are!" Miles cheered, throwing himself onto the nearest bed with a satisfied sigh before jumping up and climbing up the ladder to a bed sort of hanging from the roof.

The room was, in all honestly, brag worthy. Three beds – one built into the wall with another one under it – were placed into their own separate little 'corner' of the room, whereas the rest of the room was quite empty, save for a couch and a table. The walls were solid wood, made to look like those old wooden-cabins, and the floor was clean and polished.

I guess they just managed to impress me. Not bad.

"Lookit this room!" Miles awed, grinning widely, "It's... super cool!" he grinned widely, having already claimed the roof-bed-thing as his.

"Which bed do ya want?" I asked Craig, raising an eyebrow as he dropped his bag onto the single bed with a blank look, leaving me to sleep under Miles' bed.

"Well thank you, bitch," I mumbled, rolling my eyes and placed my bag beside my bed, not really giving a shit.

"Oh, there's a cow outside our window," Miles leaned out of his bed, pressing his face against the window with a huge grin, "No, wait, that's a horse,"

I deadpanned as Miles kept awing at the things he saw, pointing to random things and announcing loudly what he had discovered. And let's just say, it gets annoying. I grabbed a few of my shirts and stuffed into a fancy drawer that could be pulled out from under my bed. While listening to birds trying to sing louder than Miles could yap, I kept unpacking.

Thankfully, Kate had learned mind-reading over the last year, and knew just when to interfere our unpacking and bonding-time when Miles had crossed the line to 'motherfucking annoying as hell'.

"Hoy," the familiar mop of hair poked through the door, a big grin on her face, "Paul says to meet by the fireplace,"

"There's a fireplace?" Miles asked, pulling away from the window and blinking owlishly, "Where?"

"... it's in the huge livingroom area that we passed through to get here?" Kate grimaced, "Jesus, you're stupid,"

Miles stuck out his tongue, "I just don't like paying attention,"

"Sure don't," Kate smirked, "C'mon, I think it's important," she added, "Because there were mentions of flying cows and security people from the Army,"

"Uuuh, maybe we should hurry," Miles said meekly, "I don't like the sound of flying cows,"

Poor boy thought Paul and Marko was serious in everything they said. At least he was sure they were serious most of the time. Not even he was so stupid to believe everything they said.

"Miles, there is no flying cows," I said dully, "It's just Marko being Marko,"

"Still... I don't like cows!"

* * *

"Hokay," Paul said as we'd crammed ourselves into the couches with Paul, Marko and the old lady from earlier standing in front of us, "You've found your rooms?"

"Well duh!" Kate exclaimed, answering for us all, "It's up there!" she added, pointing in the general direction of where her room would be.

"Yes, Kate," Paul smirked, "It is. Cookie-points for you,"

"Ooo, cookies!"

"Anyway, this here is Katarina, the owner of this entire place and my mum," Paul said cheerfully, pointing to the old lady.

I gaped. A few concerned glances was exchanged as this new piece of information was digested, people wondering if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Cause really, if she raised Paul, she couldn't be all there herself, could she?

"She'll be keeping an eye on you while me and Marko go fixing up them last details tomorrow morning, and yes, she is about as insane as I am," Paul confirmed, grinning wickedly, "So I'd suggest being a bit careful,"

Paul's mum chuckled, "I'm not _quite _as insane as you, so don't scare them now,"

"Yeah, yeah," Paul waved the comment off, "As for the questions we've been getting all day... Yes, you will be allowed to borrow the horses,"

Kate threw a fist into the air with a cry of excitement, making Frankie curse loudly as she almost got whacked by the flying fist.

"You will be allowed to go swimming in the lake," Paul continued, "And you will be allowed to borrow motocrosses and drive on the track in the woods. But you can _not _leave without bringing someone and letting either me, Marko or my mum know where you're going and what you're doing, got it?"

We nodded, the mention of motocrosses having caught my attention. I hadn't been on one in years, but fuck if I don't remember my old tricks! Not that I remember anyone asking about motocrosses, but maybe psychic tendencies among our teachers was a pro, for once. And this place just got so much more awesome.

"We've also got a schedule," Marko piped up, waving a small stack of papers over her head, "Just to get that done, tomorrow morning we'll all be going into the forest to show you the motocross-track and such,"

"Cool," a voice I recognized as Laura's mumbled, "I've always wanted to try something like that,"

"On Thursday we'll all go swimming," Marko continued, "And we'll also learn a bit more about Njörðr, the Nix, Ægir, Rán and Nerthus while we're by the water and all that jazz,"

"Aw, why spoil the day with boring stuff?" someone piped up, and I glanced over the numerous heads to try see who it was.

And failed. It's a bit hard keeping track of all the mumbles when pressed up against people on each side.

"Boring?" Paul smirked, "I'm sure you wouldn't say that if you tripped over a Neck. Or Nix. Call it what you want,"

"Oh really?" Stan said from my right, barely bothering to raise an eyebrow, "Why?"

"When I grew up, we'd hear the tales of Nøkken. The Nøkk is seen as a shape-shifting water spirit, which means there could be hiding a few in all the crooks and puddles around here. Many stories are told about a man sitting by the crook, playing enchanted songs on a violin and luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams," Paul paused, carefully taking a seat on the table.

Wow. This Norse Mythology shit is pretty dark. I thought there would be craploads of fairies and sparkles. Shows how much I know.

"... so if I hear really awesome music I should turn around and run like hell?" Jess asked, grimacing and shifting, making her elbow dig into my left side, "Sounds fishy,"

Did I ever tell you that I dislike being pressed up against people against my will? Well, this is one of the reasons. Elbows of pain will murder your ribs. I really wouldn't mind getting close with Jess, if you get my drift, just not in a room full of tired, grumpy teens in stuffy couches.

Kinda ruins the mood.

"Only some stories say these water spirits are harmful," Paul laughed, "In fact, most of them tell about completely harmless creatures that would attract women, children and men with their sweet songs, and those don't involve any drowning. Some even say that if approached correctly, he will teach a musician to play so adeptly the trees will dance and the waterfalls will stop at his music. But I dunno, never actually seen one," Paul shrugged, "And that was about it, people. Go to bed now, cause we're getting up at six tomorrow,"

"Aaw, unfair!"

"Yes," Paul rolled her eyes, "Unfair. Now piss the fuck off,"

With a few more grumbles people detached themselves from the couches, leaving the snickering from Marko and realizing that they were kind of tired after all. I waited for a while, not wanting to force myself through the crowd, taking a few moments to look at Bebe Stevens' skirt-clad ass as she passed.

And no. Don't comment on that.

"Yes sir!" Kate mock saluted as she jumped off the couch, stretching somewhat like a cat and slinking off to bed through the almost empty room.

I took that as my cue to get up before I fall asleep in this couch. When those sharp elbows left, the couch suddenly became so irresistibly comfortable. And I'm tired, sore and can't be bothered to act like a semi-normal teen at this time after hours in a plane with prissy kids and teachers, deciding that going to bed early was a splendid idea.

The two flight of stairs seemed dreadfully long as I spotted Miles' pink hair disappearing into our room in front of me, and I barely managed to slip in before the door shut, Craig and Miles already going on with their own business.

My own bed caught my eyes, the dull white sheets that had looked slightly annoying earlier looking more like a cloud of wonder as I kicked off my shoes by the door. The forest pressed up against the wall was blocking the sun, leaving my bed with small dots of sunlight hitting the bottom of it in pretty shapes.

Heaven on a plate. Or mattress. Whatever floats your boat.

"I'm going to sleep," I announced as I pulled my shirt of without a second thought, dumping into the still open drawer I had the rest of my clothes is, "Wake me up if the house is on fire,"

Not getting an answer I fell onto the bed with a sigh, feeling sleep crawling over me like a blanket instantly, and I barely noticed the soft music floating through the open window as I drifted off.

* * *

**THOD - **Whaaat a long chapter. Anyway, here is. A bit more insight in Nick, some clues to what's going on and a few hints for what will happen later. Tell me what you thought!

Read&review!


	4. The Ghost Of You

**THOD - **Blast, my chapters are getting long! Now, LOSeRS will be longer than LOSeR, but you're already getting hints for what will happen. And on another note, Berget only semi-exists. It's a mix of different places I've seen. Location is from one place, the buildings is from another, the tour idea from another etcetera, etcetera.

And here's a _very important thing; _please compare your OC to a Norse God and leave in a review! If you've already done this, just leave the name again so I won't have to go digging it up. If you need some help with it, PM me! Have questions? PM me!

And also, there's still an open competition on my profile! It won't close off until, say, five people join? So if you'd join, I'd love you forever! :D

Now, chapter 4!

* * *

_**LOSeRS **_

_Chapter 4**  
**The Ghost Of You_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

"Nick,"

I sighed and rolled over, trying to get away from this annoying voice that felt like waking me up.

"Nickster?"

"Shup," I mumbled, wanting to go back to the previous wonderful dream of flying motocrosses and a boat shaped like a duck.

"Well?"

"He's not waking up,"

"Dipshit,"

"Heh, I can fix that,"

As the voice registered in my head, I instantly shot up, backing up against the wall. I scowled and pointing in the direction of the intruders of my privacy. I was still plastered to the wall, very hesitant about going any closer, mostly because I have no intentions of finding out what in the world would happen if someone let _her _try to wake me up.

"Why the fuck did you let her in here?" I shouted, glaring at Miles' head as he hung upside down from his bed, peeking down curiously to see what the fuzz was about.

"Now, Nick," Marko cooed, the most insane grin I have ever seen plastered onto her face, "Slept well?"

I scowled, "Until you suckers came in. Why the fuck are you in here?"

Marko rolled her eyes dramatically, crossing her arms, "Because you're the only one not awake yet. You guys are having breakfast in ten minutes and you are not going to miss that,"

Blinking, I noticed that Marko had completely changed her clothing from her usual attire. Not sure why I was even paying attention to what she was wearing, but it seemed oddly suiting for our insane teacher.

"What are you wearing?" I blurted out, "You look like a man,"

"Aw," Marko grinned, "Why thank you! It's actually some old clothes from before me and Paul moved to South Park,"

"Really?" I furrowed my eyebrows, inspecting the saggy pants and oversized, baggy hoodie.

"No," she snorted, only confusing me more, "But it's my clothes. Now get your tiny butt outta bed and get over to breakfast," she finished, waving as she sauntered out the door.

I resisted sighing as the door slammed shut behind her, an almost hysterical laugh seeping through the walls and gradually fading as she got farther away. Leaving me with a bad feeling that this would be about as normal as things would get on our stay here. Judging from how things were...

"Whoa," Miles pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead, grinning, "That was a close call! She almost found out I'm not wearing any pants!"

... that was not a good sign.

Craig paused as he was getting dressed, his shirt held at an odd angle over his head as he gave Miles a blank look. I stuck my head out to get a better view of Miles' sheepish grin, praying I'd just misheard him or at least misunderstood him.

"... but you are wearing underwear, right Miles?" I said slowly, not all sure I even want to know.

"Sure..." He dragged out on the word, rubbing his neck uncomfortably, "Underwear. Yes, yes of course,"

"Miles!" Craig exclaimed, pulling his shirt on with a displeased look, "Fucking hell, dude,"

"Sorry!" Miles' head disappeared from view completely, "I like the fresh air,"

"Dude, gross. I really didn't need to know that," I grumbled, reaching down into the still open drawer and grabbing an old and faded pink t-shirt that came from some random dumpster and slipping it on, already equipped with pants from the day before.

Yes. I wear pink shirts. You'd probably do so too, if the choice was between begging a psychopath for a new shirt or dumpster-diving.

"Admit it," Miles' face appeared once again, a slightly mischievous glint in his green eyes, "You secretly wanted to know that I sleep naked at night so you could climb up and rape me,"

"No," I deadpanned, throwing a tiny, silent whimper into the back of my head in hopes of just enjoying the day, "I'd rather not," I raised an eyebrow, "Not everyone in this room is gay, you know,"

"More like everyone that isn't Miles," Craig muttered, throwing a glance to the clock that hung by the door, "You girls hurry up now," he said, throwing us a smirk and a salute before leaving the room without another word.

"But I'm not gay!" Miles exclaimed as the door shut behind Craig, scowling and climbing down the ladder from his bed, "Why do people keep thinking that?"

I sighed and got off my own bed, hoping to just leave Miles to try understand why in the world someone would think he's gay. Of course, quite a puzzle that. Might have something to do with the pink hair, maybe?

Fucking idiot.

Jumping into my old sneakers I left the room, still ignoring Miles' complaints, taking a few minutes to look at the house we staying in instead of bothering with his whining. It's not like he'd actually shut up soon, anyway. He'll probably keep that debate going on all week, if we're unlucky.

As I went down the stairs towards the first floor, inspecting the walls as I went. They looked surprisingly old, probably hand-built, a few paintings or small figurines adoring them. The figurines, oddly enough, was actually inside the walls. Behind a thin layer of glass they'd made small holes in the wall, thin patterns adorning the sides of the small pockets. And in these small holes they'd place the many figures, all scarce looking and some even having a very handmade look to them.

It was a bit like a small museum. Telling some sort of story. A story I'd love to figure out.

Once again I pass through the living-room area, barely registering that it was much bigger than I'd first thought now that the bright daylight lit up the room. And hardly noticing the dark, glaring painting hanging in the shaded corner, watching my every move as I opened the front door and met the cheerful sunlight with a groan.

I disapprove of this reckless use of sunlight. Save it for the penguins or something. I dunno. Or bottle it up and sell it as a new energy drink, I really don't give a shit, just get it the hell out of my face!

A splatter of red hair caught my eye as I got a bit more used to this horrendous light, and slowly made my way towards what had been pointed out as the cafeteria. I turned my head to get a better look, and saw a girl around my age exiting another building – presumably another building like the one we were staying in – with quick, swift steps. For the obvious reason that it was early morning and breakfast time, she was also headed for the cafeteria.

And in all honesty, it's to early for me to be even thinking about why I'm people-watching at all. I despise people. They make me feel naked. I dislike being naked without actually undressing.

Am I even making sense?

I swore as I felt a headache creeping up on me, reaching up and rubbing my forehead irritably as I entered through the already open double doors of the cafeteria. And to only worsen the now prominent headache sneaking around my mind, there were people everywhere.

Including my... friends. That I'd rather not have in this moment. Because, let's face it, they're stupid and annoying as hell.

But I walked over to the table most of the class occupied, slumping down on one of the few free chairs and sighing. Which was barely enough to lift a head, which I'd expected. You'd have to set off a bomb to get any of these to pay attention, no matter which situation.

"Hey, hoe," Kate said through a mouthful of sandwich, only noticing I was there since I 'accidentally' kicked her shin, "Go get yourself some lunch,"

"Not hungry," I answered automatically, despite being quite so hungry, "I'll just wait 'till lunch,"

"That's a long time, dude," Jude pointed out, furrowing her eyebrows in concern, "You sure you're okay?"

"Peachy," I replied dryly, stealing Craig's cup of water from my right, ignoring his sour glare as I drowned the ice-cold water.

Which agitated my headache, but knocked the haze from sleeping straight out of my head. I grinned halfheartedly, putting down the cup again. The water here was completely different from the water at home. Crystal clear, freezing cold and without any kind of alarming taste. And to top it off, I heard it came from a private well.

Now that's some shit I approve of.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Kenny asked as he pushed away his clean plate, "I'd think you would be hungry by now," he continued, hinting to the fact that I hadn't touched any sort of food while after they'd picked me up at Kate's.

"I'm just not hungry, alright?" I snapped, instinctively going a bit defensive as the sore subject of me and food was brought up.

"No need to get angry," Robyn said without even looking up from her food, "Fuckin' hell,"

"Sorry," I mumbled, "Just got a headache,"

"Did someone say headache?" I yelped as a head popped up over my shoulder, Paul's mother Katarina giving us a very cheerful smile.

"Well..." Hope Anne Tompson said, being the first to speak up while giving the woman an odd look, "Yes?"

"Now that's not good!" Katarina's smile turned to a frown, "Who's the unlucky one?"

"He is," Kenny pointed in my direction, "And he's whining about it,"

"Pfft," Katarina whacked the back of my head, worsening my headache considerably, "Wankers. When you got a headache, get an ibux! Don't whine!"

"The hell?" I mumbled as I watched her hurry towards the kitchen, calling out something in this alien language as she went.

"... she just called you a... sausage cow," Kyle informed me, "That's a pretty weird insult,"

"Yeah..." I paused, "You're weird. Why would you even know Norwegian?"

"Fan, du e dum," Kyle muttered, rolling his eyes as Kate almost spit out the water she was drinking.

"You sound like such an immigrant!" She forced out between laughs, giggling madly as she tried to pick up another piece of bacon.

"Dammit," Kyle pouted, "I never get it right,"

"Darn right," Kate smirked, "And you'll never get it right,"

"Aha!" the exclamation interrupted their little conversation, successfully catching a few peoples attention as Katarina returned from the kitchen, "I found an ibux!"

"Jesus," Kate raised both eyebrows, looking semi-surprised as she shook her head, "I see where Paul got it from,"

"Shit," I groaned and covered my face with my hands, "This won't be pretty,"

"Got that right," Stan mumbled, picking up his sandwich again as the old woman skipped across the room towards us, a mischievous smile on her face.

* * *

"I will never look at an old lady the same again," I mumbled, sighing as the sun beat down on us where we sat on a few benches outside the cafeteria, waiting for our 'tour guide' to appear.

There was a guided 'adventure' tour everyone that chose to stay here was offered, and of course, we were no exception. But I'm not sure walking around in this heat would be much fun.

"Where's Cartman?" Stan asked out of nowhere, "That constant, evil mumble-mumble is gone,"

"Where he's been for the last then minutes, maybe? Right over..." Wendy too-good-to-speak-to-us-'punks'-unless-needed-to answered, pointed to an empty spot on the ground and trailing off, "... there," she finished lamely, finding it unimportant and shrugging, returning to her previous and much more important conversation.

"Wow," Frankie scowled, "Actual words. I'm impressed. Haven't gotten that from princess over there since the tree-accident,"

"That was no accident," Johnny pointed out, "And you all know it,"

"I guess," Frankie shrugged, "It was still shit,"

"Hang on, can you hear that?" Kate asked, blinking in confusion, "Doesn't that sound like...?"

Loud, obnoxious curses and swears, sounding suspiciously like an angry Cartman, came from somewhere not too far away. Paul and Marko appeared from around a corner soon after, dragging something behind them, neither looked very pleased.

"People!" Paul barked, struggling slightly to drag whatever she and Marko was pulling along on the ground in what looked like an old carpet, "If I catch _anyone _trespassing around here..."

The two came to a halt in front of us, the lump of something they were dragging swearing loudly. Marko, looking absolutely emotionless, gave the bag a blank look, the complete silence from the two actually giving me the creeps. And I had a feeling whatever was trapped in that carpet was either Cartman, or a horribly alike alien-copy of him.

"This," Marko said slowly, noticing that Paul was a bit too ticked off to speak properly, "Is what will happen to whoever go off trespassing. We've established where you're not allowed to go..." Marko ignored the furious swearing that was Cartman, "And if you do, you'll also be sent home, like little Eric here will be,"

"... you're sending him home?" Laura asked, looking a bit unsure about the current situation.

"Yes. By car. And boat. With a friend of ours," Marko smirked, "Also known as bodybuilder Borislav Volkov. Which means we'll see Eric here when we get home, if he even survives driving in a car with Mr. Volkov,"

I winced. I remember having seen a Borislav Volkov on some TV-show about extremists. I have no idea why Marko and Paul would have a really tall, flower-power bodybuilder as a friend. Makes sense, I guess. But for once... I feel a bit sorry for Cartman.

That should say enough.

"Now, this pretty lady here," Marko said with a bright smile, pointing to a young woman exiting the main building with a small group of people, "Will guide you. She's already gotten the rest of the group, so listen to her or we'll wrap you up in a carpet and stuff you into a car with a creepy Russian!" she exclaimed, waving as the two of them dragged of a severely pissed of Cartman.

I'm not even sure what to think right now.

"Uh, that was..." Miles trailed off, scratching the back of his head in confusion, "A bit... odd,"

"I find this a quite pleasant change," Kate leaned back, grinning, "No Cartman. No nazi bastard. No nothing,"

"Don't say that," I sighed, "You'll probably jinx us all,"

"Sorry,"

"And you must be class E," our guide interrupted our small-talk with a short laugh, "I'm Alec Huston, I'll be showing you all the surrounding areas of awesome here!" she grinned, pointing off towards a small road disappearing into the forest a bit away, "We're starting with the motocross-track, so let's get going!"

With a sigh I slid off the bench, the rest of the group already on the move as I unsurprisingly fell behind. The shadows cast by the trees as we approached the forest was very much welcome, Alec starting off our tour with an energetic story about Berget's history.

"In 1989, Katarina, her daughter and Katarina's husband moved here with their small collection of animals. The main house over there barely one third of the size it is now, actually. Katarina and her daughter, Hanna, started out with only three small and very important ponies we'll return to at some point. Later on it turned into five horses, and then seven, then nine and now we're up in a blasting one-hundred and seventeen horses," Alec said, grinning as the farm disappeared from sight, the road becoming steeper as we proceeded on our 'adventure tour'.

"Over a hundred horses?" Kate awed, "Really?"

"They only have sixty of them here, but they do own that many horses, yes. Running as a professional therapy center for both animals and humans, people come from across the world to escape real life here,"

"What's that?" a pretty, brown haired girl interrupted, staring into the forest, "And why is it looking at us?"

Alec paused, "I'm not sure. I can't really see it... though, if it's over by the stream, maybe it's a nøkk?"

I frowned, walking up to the other girl and looking over her shoulder, admitting myself curious, "Where is it, _amore_?"

She nodded towards the small stream, "Somewhere over there. I kind of lost sight of it,"

"There has been stories of people seeing a nøkk around here, but I've never actually thought it was true..." Alec scratched the back of her neck, frowning, "Odd,"

"Then maybe it was the nøkk I heard last night," Kate bounced towards us, grinning widely as she peered into the forest, "This completely random music came through the window as I was about to fall asleep! It had to be a nøkk, right? Since it sounded like a violin?"

The other people were also trying to see through the thick forest, whispers of speculations being heard over the running water from the stream. All I could see, however, was what looked like shapeless shadows playing between the rays of sunlight forcing itself through the thick branches and hitting the stream in a somewhat magical way. I can most definitively imagine seeing some sort of fairy-tale creature sitting on a moss clad rock, playing on it's polished violin.

"Sorry for being rude," the brown haired girl gave Kate a look, interrupting Kate's very excited chatter, "But who're you?"

"Oh!" Kate slapped her forehead, "I'm Kate Dear," she extended a hand, "Apologies for the lack of manners. I just never had any,"

"Right," the other girl shook Kate's hand shortly, "Charlie White,"

"I think I see it!" the redhead from this morning exclaimed, "By the rock!"

I frowned and took a step closer, trying to find the rock she was talking about. The shapeless shadows kept distracting me, making me almost miss the tall and skinny creature hiding behind the rock, completely camouflaged by the numerous shadows all around it. An odd sense of familiarity tugged at the corners of my mind as the creature moved an inch, revealing what looked like a bony arm.

"It looks like a person," someone mused, "Doesn't it? A shadow person,"

The temperature dropped several degrees as the sense of familiarity finally slapped me in the face, the creature reaching out a hand into a ray of sunshine as if wanting to point out how stupid I'd been not to realize it sooner. The light bounced off it's pale, blue hand before it dissolved and turned into specks of what looked like ashes, leaving nothing but an empty forest and very excited, confused tour-goers. But they all wondered the same thing, the thing I'd finally realized.

What in the world that thing was.

* * *

**THOD - **Struggled a bit with the ending, I admit. xD Changed it completely, even. Tell me what you thought? Cause I'm a tad bit unsure about how it turned out. D:

What do you think the thing was? D: If you guess correctly, I'll write you a 2500-word one shot! :D Please...

... read&review? :D


	5. Just Call Me Angel

**THOD - **I do realize I've been incredibly slow with updating. But now that's summer is over and I'm not back at school, I'll get back on track. And eh... well, things won't be all happy dandy these new chapters, I guess, because I've been in a terrible mood lately. So yeah.

Still, thank you all for everything! You're the absolutely best! And very sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others, I had some struggles writing it while battling my light writer's block. Dx

And psssht, don't tell my boss, but I spent almost all day editing this instead of working! xD Which is why you won't have to wait another week for this to be finished. And there might be a few hints in here, but it's up to you to find them!

Btw, I'm glad to say that no one guessed right on what that thing in the forest was. Many of you where half-right and all, but it makes me happy to know I have a few surprises up my sleeve, at least! Now, let's go!

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 5  
Just Call Me Angel  
_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

The tour was interesting, to say it like that. We'd seen the motocross track, a number of other interesting sights and the one thing that had interested me quite much.

Far up in the woods, probably fifteen kilometers or something, there was a small staircase leading into some sort of underground cave-system. Alec had told us it was an old tourist attraction and the source of a local myth. But after an unfortunate kid dying down there, it'd been closed down.

No dipshit this caught our attention.

Not just because the kid was apparently still down there, but also because of the myth itself. According to Alec, it was nothing but rocks and tunnels slithering beneath the ground. One of these tunnels would lead to a certain place, where a clue was hidden. The clue would lead to another, say, 'chamber' in there, where you would find a key and two more clues.

One clue would lead you out of the cave.

The other would tell you the location of the doors to the other 'eight worlds'.

And the key would supposedly open one of the doors. Whatever that means.

We – meaning Kate nagged us into it for some reason – have plans of going there and finding these clues. Because it would really make this whole thing so much more interesting and it would probably make Kate very happy. Instead of learning about all these fucking God's and worlds, we'll just go there and see what we find.

But since it's just the end of dinner and our free time is in about ten minutes, we're just going to have to wait until we're actually allowed to run around like the freaks we are. It's still undecided who's going, since everyone feels like going into a death-trap and dying today, and the debate's been going since we started eating.

Well, since the others started eating.

"I still think I should go," Kate said through a mouthful of potatoes, pointing her fork in Kyle's direction, "Since I have boobs, I mean,"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kyle asked, looking slightly fed up with Kate's ridiculous reasons for why she should be one of the ones to go.

Last time it was because she ate cereal with a Winnie The Pooh bowl, and before that it was because had a Indiana Jones poster on her wall.

"Wait," Kenny cut in, smirking, "Can you prove that?"

"She doesn't have to," Jude grinned sloppily, patting Kate's head, "There's like... five witnesses right here,"

"... repeat that?"

"It's called the girls shower, Kenny," Kate snickered, "Every girl in Gym-class has, at some point, seen everyone else naked,"

"Do we really need to know what you people do in the showers?" I asked, finishing off my third glass of water, "Cause I really don't want to know,"

"It's because you're gay, isn't it?" Kenny asked seriously, putting his fork down in all his 'serious seriousness'.

I choked on my water as I realized what he'd said, glaring at Kenny and flipped him off for his genius comment while Kate snickered - along with almost everyone else - Kenny trying to hide his laughter by turning away in a failed attempt at being subtle.

"Fucking closet homo," I stood up, hearing my shoulder crack as usual, "Whatever. I'm going outside,"

"Aw, offended, Nickers?" Frankie teased, smirking, "Poor you,"

I rolled my eyes, "Not really. But these chairs are killing me," I turned and headed towards the door, not giving much of a shit about what they thought.

Besides, being gay sound kind of... well, _gay._

"Meet you in the livingroom later?"

"Right," I waved over my shoulder, "Don't eat yourself to death!" I added as I exited the cafeteria, the sun blinding me momentarily as I entered the broad daylight.

And there was things going on everywhere, a constant flow of activity and energy.

Two horses and their riders came trotting in from the forest-round we'd walked, both horses dancing around and acting up halfheartedly. Their riders simply laughed at them. A few of the people saddling up other horses further away laughed along with them and whispered among themselves with broad smiles, probably having been in that situation before.

Some punks with brightly colored hair was playing chess under a tree, smoking and discussing as the small group hid from the harshest sun, oddly enough not looking very out of place.

Everything seemed to fit in here.

But maybe not me.

I just stood out in the open, staring at the ground awkwardly with my hands in my pockets as people scurried around like ants doing whatever. In and out of buildings, some jogging around and yelling for their friends. Washing equipment. Cleaning various animals.

And I did nothing at all, no surprise there.

"You alright?" the voice made me turn abruptly, the girl with the bright red hair from the tour standing there, wearing one of the cutest smiles I've ever seen.

I hadn't gotten a good look earlier, but I just realized what I'd missed. Kind of short if you compared to my freaking 5''11, but that's the way I like it, if you get my drift.

I grinned meekly, "Yeah, I'm fine," I shrugged as she walked up to my side, glancing down at the ground I'd been staring at curiously.

Heh. I'm so taking her to bed, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do.

"Then what are you staring at?" she asked, "Because I really can't see anything interesting,"

"There's not actually anything there, either," I laughed, "Sorry, I'm Nicholas," I extended a hand, "Nice to meet you,"

"I'm Riot," she shook my hand, before nodding towards one of the many barns, "You ride?"

"Never tried..." I grimaced, "Unless you mean bikes. I ride bikes,"

"Most people ride bikes," Riot grinned, brushing some hair out of her eyes, "But I was thinking motocross, not bike-bike,"

"Oh..." I shifted my weight, "Well, I do,"

"Wanna go for a ride? You look like you could need a few seconds of fun," she put her hands in her pockets grinned widely, making a smile tug at the corner of my mouth subconsciously.

"Sure," I shoved my hands into my pockets as well, "Are we even allowed to use the motocrosses?"

"Course we are," Riot started walking, and I followed her sleazily, not in much of a hurry, "I work here. Summer-job, that is. I rent out the crosses and keeping track of where they are,"

"Then why were you on the tour earlier?" I asked, frowning, "If you work here and all? Shouldn't you know that already?"

"Ah, but I don't," she smirked, "And what better way to learn than hearing the best tour-guide explain everything?" she pulled out a key of her pocket and slipping it into the lock of a seemingly random door, "And if I hadn't, I'd missed out on all the fun,"

"Guess so..." I trailed off, trying to think of something else to say, "You ride, then?" I finally asked and followed her into a small store filled with various motocross equipment and knick-knacks.

"Not really," she went behind the counter and shuffled around a few things, glancing up momentarily and smiling that smile again, "Well, no, I only ride ATV's and horses,"

I grinned meekly, trying to fight off the urge to turn around in fear of an overdose of pretty. It's lethal, trust me. Because I might, or might not, have a weak spot for pretty girls. And this, by all means, is a very pretty girl.

See my slight dilemma?

"Alright-y," Riot finished whatever she'd been doing and came out again, pointing over to a wall covered in motocross-gear, "What's your size?"

"I think... eh, 38?" I racked my brain for the size on my pants, "Or something. I'm not sure, just give me something," I shrugged as she pulled down a pair of gray pants and a shirt, throwing them to me.

"Try those," she turned back to the wall, probably to find a pair for herself as I slipped into the half-open door of a changing-room and changed into the cross-gear.

I suddenly do feel kind of gay as I throw away the faded pink shirt, grimacing at the girlish color. I desperately need a new shirt, or I could just steal the idiotically expensive cross-shirt. But that probably wasn't a good idea.

"Does it fit?" Riot called from the changing-room beside the one I was in, probably changing into her own gear as I tripped out of the room, glancing down at myself briefly to see how retarded I looked.

"It fits," I replied, tugging at the gray-ish fabric uncomfortably and running a hand through my hair, "Where's the shoes?"

"Just hang on, I'm..." she trailed off and opened the door, standing there in her red and white clothes, "Done now," she finished, patting my shoulder as she passed me, "And they're over here,"

"Size... eh, 39?" I tried to remember something from Kyle's half-hour explanation to Robyn about difference in sizes on the plane, "I think it's 39,"

Riot shuffled around the shoes and pulled out two pairs, handing me one, "Try these, then,"

"Thanks," I kicked off my shoes, going over ways of starting a conversation in my head and coming up with nothing but shit, yet I went for it, "If I told you a secret, would you tell anyone?"

Riot paused pulling on her left shoe and looked up, "Depends on the secret," she answered, "Why?"

"Well, you know The Cave?" I asked carelessly, pulling the shoes on and heading over to the gloves, grabbing a random pair.

"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow and returned to her shoes, yet I knew she was curious, "What about it?"

"I'm going down there," I took the pair of gloves and turned, grinning slightly as she furrowed her eyebrows, obviously not agreeing with me.

"It's closed down," she got up and came closer, "A kid died down there. Probably not that good of an idea," she said slowly, grabbing a pair of gloves as well and one of the helmets hanging on the wall.

"I know. But you know the..." I trailed off, making a face, "Thing we saw in the forest?"

"Go on," Riot grabbed a helmet and handed to me, "What about that thing?"

"It looked exactly like one of my friends," I tried the helmet on and slipped the helmet onto my arm after finding it the right size, "A friend that killed herself last year,"

"Oh... I'm sorry about your friend, but what does it have to do with The Cave?" Riot asked, her voice showing her slight curiosity, "There was just a key down there. How could that help?"

"The theory would be that Hedgehog was from here," I explained as we left the 'shop'-area and entered a garage filled up with everything from bicycles to tractors, "And we know she believed in Norse Mythology. So then she'd get sent to the death-world thing of Norse Mythology, no?"

"Probably. Means she'd be in Hel now," Riot corrected with a light laugh, nodding as she walked over to the corner, "Death-world thing. Kinda funny. But are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"If that would be that we're planning on using the key and the map to find the doors to wherever, poke our heads in and get her back... then yes," I winced at how incredibly stupid it sounded as we stopped by a small clutter of motocrosses of various sizes and colors, and I caught a brief glance of Riot's thoughtful face. She put her helmet down on one of the bikes and went over to the barn-doors in front of us, unlocking them.

"I... guess," she didn't seem convinced, "And you're going to walk all the way up there?"

"I dunno," I shrugged and leaned against one of the bikes, "Probably. It can't hurt to check the place out. The whole myth might just be rubbish, but Kate refused to let it go,"

"It kind of makes sense," Riot muttered, shoving open the door, "Why not go up and check it out now?"

"Some of the others were going as well and I think they're still eating dinner..." I mused, ignoring the creeping feeling under my skin as the numerous possible outcomes raced through my head. We might actually find something. Or we'd find nothing.

Still, something about that 'Cave' didn't sit all right with me. Definitively gave me the creeps.

"Bring two of them? They can sit on the back," Riot ran a hand through her hair and picked up her helmet again, "But... I kind of forgot to mention," Riot paused, smiling sheepishly, "Can you show me how to ride this thing?"

"You don't know how to ride?" I asked, all thoughts of other worlds and creepy caves momentarily fleeing my head, "Then why did you want to ride?"

"You looked kinda down," Riot shrugged, "And seemed like the cross-kind of guy. I don't like seeing people sad, so I thought it might cheer you up,"

I felt a smile tug at my lips, "That's... unnaturally kind. You gotta be a robot," I added the last part jokingly, kicking off the tri-stand and making sure the bike stood in neutral. As Riot watched, head tilted slightly to the right as I checked the fuel-intake, finding it reasonably easy after a few minutes of looking.

"Check the fuel-intake," I tapped the small switch to show her, "Make sure it's turned to on,"

"Alright," Riot leaned down and surveyed the left side of the bike, "Got it. Now what?"

"Take off the tri-stand," I nodded towards the one I'd kicked to the side, "And check if the bike's in neutral, alas, if it rolls when you push it,"

Riot kicked off the stand carefully, and gave the bike a push, the bike refusing to move. She frowned and pushed a bit harder, the bike giving off an almost inaudible click as it once again refused.

"It won't move," Riot gave the cross a look, "Why?"

I reached down and grabbed the tri-stand for my cross again, putting it on and heading over to her, grabbing the handlebars as she moved away slightly. I gave the bike a push, noticing it still didn't want to move. Deciding it was in gear, I held in the clutch and kicked it into first before flipping it up to where neutral should be and tried again.

The bike rolled along willingly.

"There," I grinned as Riot once again took over the bike, "It was just in gear,"

"Right," Riot nodded as I headed back to my bike, kicking away the poor tri-stand again and casting Riot another glance.

Goddamn, she was fucking hot. She looked bloody perfect beside that cross. If she'd been naked, I might just have died.

"C'mon then," I ran a hand over the break with a smirk, "I haven't really been on one of these in a few years, I feel like a kid at Christmas," I admitted, pushing the bike out as it rolled along smoothly.

"Then it's about time you got back on," Riot said as she rolled beside me and the bike now named Olf, barely struggling with the weight of it.

I tell you, pushing a cross isn't as easy as it seems. But of course, even this semi-awesome moment could be semi-ruined.

"Nick-o!"

I winced as the voice called my name, Kate practically rolling out of the cafeteria with Kyle, Frankie, Jude, Kenny and Craig in tow, "Why do you have a potential suicide machine?"

"It's... a motocross," I deadpanned as Kate shrugged, pointing to Riot rudely.

"Who's that?" she asked, tilting her head, "And why does she have cooler hair than me?"

"Because not everyone insists on using men's shampoo and cutting their hair with butter-knifes?" Craig asked, smacking the back of Kate's head lightly, "Stop asking stupid questions,"

"Well excuse moi, then," Kate scowled, "But who are you? And how do you know Nick?" she looked directly at Riot now, missing the slightly raised eyebrows and the odd look she was getting from the girl in question.

"I'm Riot," she replied, apparently shaking off all weird-vibes from everyone, "I just met him. And who are you, then?"

"I'm Kate!" Kate, of course, announced loudly, making me long back for that less loud and more socially acceptable Kate from last year.

Where'd the old Kate go?

Moments like these are quite embarrassing, you know. And with this Kate, they just keep coming. I just want to walk by and insist I've never met any of them before. But that wouldn't work, would it?

"And we should be leaving," I interrupted their energetic introducing, "We're going up to the Cave,"

Kate's entire attitude did a complete flip as her heinously fake smile withered away, the rest of the guys sobering up slightly as she gave me a serious glare, "Then I'm going as well,"

There's my prissy bitch.

"We can only take two," I said, shrugging, "And you'll need helmets,"

"We decided that either Craig or Kyle should go," Frankie spoke up, hands in the pockets of her hoodie as she gave the bikes a once-over, "I guess it's up to them to decide,"

"What are we expecting to find up there anyway?" Kyle asked, giving the forest a rather skeptic look, "A pile of rocks telling us which way is the highway to hell?"

"Alec said there would be a map and a key, no? And unless that myth was a heinous lie, a supreme journey would be most in place. And you might find a shiny rock," Jude said and grinned sloppily, pushing some of her hair out of her face, "That would be most excellent,"

I saw Kate's face drop slightly, her hands tightening to fists briefly, "Yeah... a rock," she said quietly, putting on one of the most fake grins I've seen in a long time.

"We're finding that fucking map, aren't we?" Craig crinkled his nose, "What, you suddenly became retarded and forgot, Kyle?"

"I'm not retarded, but you shouldn't expect something that's obviously fake," Kyle glared at Craig, "Or you actually believe in that junk?"

"So what if I do?"

"Then you're dumb,"

They kept throwing insults back and forth, Kate visibly flinching with each comment. Poor, guilty girl. But eh, I really can't see the big deal.

She desperately believed in this. It couldn't even strike her mind in a thousand years to joke about it when she had the chance to bring back someone she felt she'd killed, despite the fact that Hedgehog had plainly killed herself in all ways. She took it _very _seriously.

I'm not sure I do.

"Shut the fuck up, would you?" Frankie barked, "You're both dumb as fuck, now shut the pie-hole's and decide who's going,"

"I'm not," Kyle said instantly, not looking too pleased, "Let the dipshit go," he added, rolling his eyes as he walked off towards the house we stayed at abruptly, probably offended out of his boxers again for one thing or another.

"What made him so mad?" Riot asked a bit hesitantly, having watched the argument with clear unease as she'd kept staring at random things awkwardly.

"He's always mad when the conversation comes within a mile of hinting at something that _might _have to do with Hedgehog," Kenny took it upon himself to explain, eying her sneakily as he talked, "You'll get used to everyone being bitchy. But yeah, I'm not going either, so good luck with that mission impossible thing. Nice meeting you, of course,"

He winked at Riot and turned, stalking off towards our building, probably eager to get away from this whole idiotic thing. Hell, even I think it sounds idiotic, despite being kind of cool.

"Wh-" Riot started, Kate cutting her off expertly and immediately.

"So, I'll be riding with you, then?" she beamed, "Should I find a helmet?"

"I... guess so," Riot raised an eyebrow, "They hang on the wall inside there," she nodded in the direction of where we'd come from, "Just try a few on and pick one that fits,"

"You're wearing a helmet too," Frankie grabbed Craig's arm, shoving him in the general direction, "Shoo now, don't want to miss that helmet!"

"Yeah, yeah," Craig shrugged and snailed off, marking the spot where we headed off for adventure by slamming the door and flipping us off in the same time.

This surely would be interesting, wouldn't it?

I just hope I won't fucking die.

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**THOD - **It's lame, it's slow and totally poiintleeesss~ it's chapter 5! Heh! Chapter 6 WON'T take as long, though, with me now having started working and all, I might be a little busy. But no worries, I can sneak in some writing at work! ;D

Read&review please! I'll love you forever!


	6. But I Got My Hand On My Gun

**THOD - **Another unexciting chapter full of junk! Horray, people, here happens very little! However, a few vital clues are hidden, so if you find them I'm sure you'll get a better grip of what's going on. But then again, I like hiding clues, so they might be lost in letter-space. Though, whoever finds one of the clues and PM's me about it will get a 3000-word one-shot!

And I remind you all to find a God similar to your OC or PM me if you need help, since I truly need this! If I don't get in anything on your OC he/she _will _be left out of the main plot!

Now, here we go! And remember to bring your First Aid kits!

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 6  
But I Got My Hand On My Gun_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

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"We can only cover for you for so long," Frankie said as we waited for Kate and Craig to return, "Probably not for very long, either,"

"Can't you round together some more people and have them help out?" I asked, tugging at the rubber-handle in boredom, "How about Jess? Maybe she can distract them for an hour or three with something,"

"I'm not sure," Frankie rubbed her elbow, "Probably not too good of an idea to piss of Paul, Marko and that batshit insane old woman. You know they'd get annoyed at that,"

"Not a good idea, no," Riot pursed her lips, "There's scary stories about that. Then again, there's scary stories about everything here,"

"Guess there is..." Jude drawled, furrowing her eyebrows as she stared airily at the sky, "The weather is excellent,"

"We know," Frankie replied monotonously, shaking her head lightly, "You already said it three times,"

"Oh," Jude shrugged, "The weather is still quite excellent,"

"It is," Riot agreed, still supporting her bike, glancing towards the door to the Cross Renting every now and then, drumming her fingers against the seat restlessly.

Until something finally happened.

Craig, with Kate in tow, exited the Cross Renting carrying a helmet each, Kate looking mighty displeased at her dark-green helmet. Craig had a semi-dark blue helmet hanging on his arm, a slightly smug smirk on his face as Kate sulked along. If I knew Kate well enough, she'd wanted the blue one. But she seems to want everything Craig has these days, would surprise me if she'd started stealing his clothes as well.

"Finally," I rolled my eyes, a partly bothering habit I'd gotten over these few annoying weeks before leaving, "Took your time, didn't you?"

"Trying to push away the moment where I'll have to touch you, Acqua," Craig smirked, "Since Kate already let me know about a dozen times she'd be on that Riot-girl's cross,"

"I'm not too thrilled either," I spat dryly, raising an eyebrow, "But you'll have to do,"

"Says the gay one," Craig muttered and put on his helmet, having some trouble fastening the chin-strap.

I snorted and put my own helmet on, fastening it easily and slinging a leg over the cross, shifting my weight slightly and waiting for the girls to get moving.

"Nick?" Riot asked as she slung a leg over the cross, looking a bit unsure, "How do you start it?"

"Kick-start it," I pointed to the kick-starter hiding behind her right leg, "And gas. Just give it a kind of... steady flow of gas for a while," I waved my hand around, trying to underline what I was saying.

"Uh-huh..." Riot raised an eyebrow, "You first,"

"Be my guest," I found the kick-start with my heel and gave it a solid kick, the engine couching to life as it got it's fair share of gas, a somewhat purring sound coming from Olf's engine.

I'm loving this cross already. It's my new best friend. Screw Craig, this bike is so much better than him.

I watched as Riot kicked the bike to life, barely giving it any gas and chocking it, the engine groaning in complaint as it died. I couldn't help snickering and pressed the 'Stop Engine' button, Olf dying quietly as commanded.

"Why'd it die?"

"Never rode a cross?" Kate tilted her head, grinning, "Fun,"

"More gas," I nodded, watching closely as she tried again, giving it enough gas to keep running.

"Now what?" Riot grinned, "How does it go forward?"

"Clutch, put it in gear and release the clutch slowly while giving gas," I smirked, remembering how that part was bit more tricky than it sounded.

I almost cracked up when Riot chocked the engine, frowning in irritation as she started it again, probably fully intent on making the damn thing go.

Ten tries later we'd moved about five meters.

Ten tries after that we were almost there, having moved another five meters.

And all in all, it took only twenty-seven tried for Riot to get the hang of it, which makes me kind of embarrassed at my fourty-nine tries on my first ride.

Beaten by a girl. For the billionth time in my life.

"You two done playing?" Kate asked dryly, yawning in what might have been an attempt at letting us know she was bored out of her skull, "I really think we should go," she got up from the bench she and Craig oh-so-rudely declared theirs with a roll of her eyes and a disapproving look.

Riot didn't look completely happy at Kate's comment, looking a tad bit irritated, but didn't say anything as she kick-started the bike with a frown, Kate pulling on her helmet and slid onto the back of the bike impatiently. Reluctantly, Kate grabbed onto the back of Riot's cross-shirt and I knew what flew through her mind.

Can't be easy being so darn bisexual about everything.

Now, I know you shouldn't be two on a motocross, but I don't give a flying fuck about what should be done and what shouldn't. Instead I fight the urge to scowl as Craig – reluctantly – got onto the back of the bike, sitting much too close for comfort.

To be fair, there's not that much space on these things.

Very displeased with the immensely gay position I was in, I started the bike and put it in gear, grinding my teeth together as the feeling of having someone glued to your back threatened to make me nuts. How I despise being close to anyone unless it involves them being naked. And as long as it's not bloody Craig. Nothing in the world could ever make being close to Craig okay.

"Come on!" Riot called over the engine's combined noise, her bike moving slowly ahead as I let go of the clutch and gave gas, the bike obediently following Riot and Kate and helping me forget about being too close for comfort to someone that isn't a naked chick.

However, this speed won't do.

I increased speed slightly as we met the hill leading into the forest, Riot and Kate a bit behind as we passed a couple coming down the hill with a German Shepard in tow, the dog barely blinking as we sped past. The couple merely waved at us, their fancy hiking-gear making them look like mountain-climbers where they went.

The chances of crashing were multiplying as we drove further into the forests, cutting straight through the cross-track and following the route we took with Alec earlier. The temptation to turn and have a go at the complicated course snaking around the hill-side was intense, the jumps almost screaming at me as we re-entered the forest again.

But I don't think Craig would be very happy if I started scraping rust of my jumping-techniques with him on the back. Not that I'd give a rats ass, but I becoming a murderer on such a fine day probably isn't the best idea.

The forest itself was heaven to drive through. The trees blurred together into lines of an almost a black color, the ground evening out as we hit a more used road leading further up into the forest. Admittedly, my mind once again inched it's way back to thoughts of home, of the one person I actually cared about. To that one person I'd left behind.

The one person that could distract me.

Movement in the corner of my eye made me jump back to earth, a blur shooting out in front of the bike unexpectedly and I turned sharply in panic. Time slowed down as I lost sight of whatever had ran into the road, catching sight of a hole straight ahead instead. I froze up completely as the front wheel hit the hole and I lost control, the bike going one way as I went another, Craig lost in the whole chaos. My head hit the ground hard along with the rest of my body, my right shoulder taking most of the blow. The sharp pain washed over me as I landed on my back, the impact knocking the breath out of me.

The sound of tires skidding across the dirt echoed as I try to find my breath again, afraid to open my eyes for reasons I'm not quite sure of.

"Grab the bike and set it against the tree!" Riot's voice seemed incredibly far away, "Is he alright?"

Well shit, maybe I just killed Craig. That won't be too good.

"Craig's alright," Kate's voice followed, "What about Nick?"

Aw, crap. So I didn't kill Craig. It's actually kind of sad... no, I was never worried that I'd killed him, I swear!

"I'm not sure," Riot voice sounded so unsure and I just wanted to sit up and say that I was completely fine.

And I would have if I wasn't trying to relearn how to breathe. Something in my head probably snapped off, per say, maybe it was my brain. Or my spine, because I can't really move.

"Nicholas," A hand nudged my shoulder lightly, "Are you alright?" Riot asked softly, somewhere on my right, sounding quite close.

I winced and nodded slightly, feelings returning to various parts of my body as I once again tried to move, struggling to get up. The pathetic attempt barely got me onto my elbows, my shoulder burning even worse as I put weight on it. The goggles disappeared as Riot pulled them off carefully and I saw Kate standing besides the bikes. Both bikes leaning against trees, being used as helmet-holders as Kate inspecting Craig's bleeding elbow with an unusually serious face.

"What happened?" Riot asked, unclasping the chin-strap of my helmet and helping me pull it off, her own helmet laying abandoned by the bikes as she sat on her knees beside me.

"I... I saw something in the forest," I mentally punched myself for sounding so stupidly confused, "It ran out in the road," I ran a hand through my hair, scowling as I hit a sore spot on the back of my head.

"... what do you mean?" Riot asked, furrowing her eyebrows and putting a hand to my forehead worriedly, "Maybe you should take a minute to relax..."

I pushed her hand away, frowning, "It was _something_ there, you saw it, right?" I pushed myself up a bit more, managing to sit up almost normally by now, expertly ignoring the shrieking sting in my hip as I did so.

"What the hell was that stunt, Acqua?" Craig glared at me, Kate standing behind him and looking torn between being worried and being angry.

"There was something there! It ran into the road, dipweed!" I snapped back, "What the hell did you want me to do?"

"The fuck are you talking about?" Craig sneered, "There wasn't anything there, fool,"

"The hell it wasn't," I muttered sourly, yelping and Riot inspected the shoulder that had taken the worst of the hit, "Shit, that hurts!" I pulled away instinctively, making a face.

"Sorry," Riot shook her head, "Don't trust my thoughts here, but I think you'll have a huge fucking bruise there later,"

"Wow. As if I didn't know," I sighed, instantly feeling bad for being so snappy, "Are you sure there wasn't anything there? I swear, I didn't randomly crash for fun,"

"Nick," Kate looked genuinely worried now, "There was nothing there," she blew some hair out of her face, exchanging some sort of silent-communication-look with Craig, "Since you haven't been eating anything and that, you're probably not... completely on top of your game,"

"I'm fine," I couldn't help it as my defensive side growled angrily when she brought up what I ate, more importantly, what I didn't eat, "Just stay the fuck out of my business,"

"We should go back," Riot got to her feet, holding onto my helmet and goggles, "We can't keep going when you're obviously hurt,"

I was going to argue, but for once, I didn't have to.

"We're continuing," I glanced up at Craig and saw his extended hand, taking it with a slight grin and letting him help me up as my own knees didn't seem to function properly, "Acqua can deal,"

"Yeah, it'll pass. I'm just a little dizzy from eating dirt," I agreed, feeling a bit more confident as I knew at least someone was with me on this one.

Or he just wanted me to crash again and die this time. Can't be sure.

"You're sure?" Kate once again seemed torn between being worried and her own want to see the Cave, "We can go back, if that's what you want,"

"It's fine," I assured, shifting my right shoulder and trying not to whimper worthlessly, "Giving gas will just be... hundred times more painful,"

"You got that right," Craig supplied dryly, grabbing his helmet again and smirking, "Start your fucking bike now, Acqua,"

Riot handed me my helmet and I grinned despite myself, heading towards the bike, "Shut up, Tucker," I muttered and slipped the helmet on, fastening it with an odd feeling of determination fastening itself on me.

The image of that... _thing _jumping out in front of the cross and making me crash was lodged into my memory. Now I just have to find out what it is. And I have a nasty feeling I can find out what it was in that disgusting cave.

Something is definitively wrong with that creep-ass cave.

And we'll be finding out what.

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**THOD - **Didn't you just die of that stupidity? xD But I kind of liked it, so yeah. And if you're super kind, read&review, cause I love that.

'till next time!


	7. We Stand Above The Crowd

**THOD - **Beware of the plot trying to crawl forth! This, people, is the start of the adventure that is LOSeRS! Now, LOSeRS will probably be longer than LOSeR, so I'm guessing we'll be ending somewhere around chapter 30. Which means we still have a lot of things to discover, so I hope you've all got your adventure-faces on, cause we're going on a trip to LOSeRS-land...

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 7  
We Stand Above The Crowd_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

Before moving along, the bike - most obviously - needed a once-over in case of... well, we crashed. Something could've broken. Breaking the bike surely wasn't the best idea, specially not on the first ride. Luckily enough, for me at least, the worst damage was a hole in the rubber-handles where some dirt had lodged itself in, peeking it's head out from the gas and cackling evilly as I rolled the bike back into the road with slight difficulty and some help from Craig.

Not mentioning that he almost ran over my foot with the bike in sheer stupidity and probably revenge for my earlier crash, but he actually helped me out, no matter how sneakily he tried to do it.

The girls put on their helmets and goggles, got on the bike and started it up while I worked on inching the helmet on without hurting my head further. Apparently, hitting ones head wasn't that good of an idea. Craig got onto the back of Olf as I fastened the chin-strap, Riot started up her cross easily and cast me a worried glance over her shoulder, but I simply grinned and kick-started my own bike.

Thankfully, Olf started up without any protest, humming carelessly as I put it in gear and set off once again. Not quite as enthusiastically as earlier, but at least we were still rolling.

Rollin' down the river, baby!

Or maybe down the dirt-road instead.

We were going much slower now, annoyingly enough. Inching away slowly, barely nipping at second gear while we put the dirt-road behind us. Paranoia was clawing at my spine despite the incredible annoyance at going slowly, forcing me to keep watching the forest nervously as I tried to pay attention to everything at the same time.

I didn't want to fall off again, didn't want to hit my head again, not matter dumb it might sound. A seriously bothering headache was making me feel more claustrophobic with each passing second, the most likely broken helmet feeling a size too small. But we kept driving, the trees laughing down at us as the infinite numbers of bumps in the road pointed hysterically, trying to mess with my head.

I'd call it a success, too.

And we kept going, snailing our way ahead.

Well, _I _kept driving. Craig kept kicking my shin every now and then to make sure he was a real douche.

Which he is.

We hadn't passed any sort of living person since the couple with the dog, either, nor had we even seen anything out of the ordinary. Which was more odd than anything, but I wasn't sure I wanted to voice my opinion. Since 'we' hadn't seen anything odd at all. The others hadn't. I saw the final proof of my insanity, as ironic as that might be.

Perfectly normal.

Craig kicked me in the shin again, the shin that's gone numb six kicks ago, and pointed to the stairs peeking out from the forest, hinting for me to pull the fuck over. Which is a good thing, if I must admit, since all this thinking is confusing me. I can _swear _we were only halfway there.

Shows how reliable I am today. When did I start talking to myself anyway?

... I hit my head pretty hard, didn't I?

Riot killed the engine on her bike and rolled the remaining meters to the stairs, Kate smoothly sliding off the bike before it even stopped completely in her excitement. I sighed and killed Olf's engine, instantly reaching up to undo the chin-strap of the helmet as it was most clearly trying to murder my already abused head.

While Riot leaned her bike against a tree beside the stairs I yanked the helmet off, coughing lightly and wincing as it aggravated my already complaining shoulder. Probably should get someone to look at that, coughing shouldn't be that painful. I think.

I have no clue, actually.

Kate stood a few meters away from us, her helmet in her hands as she kept shifting her weight in her typically nervous way, watching closely as I found a tree to lean Olf against and closed the fuel intake swiftly. But of course, she couldn't remain silent forever. Kate ain't made for being silent.

"Should we go down?" Kate asked, her voice cracking slightly as impatience and nervousness showed clearly, "I mean..." she trailed off and stared unblinkingly at the unsteady stairs, once again shifting her weight.

"If we weren't going to go down, then why did we go here?" Riot asked with a light shrug and placed her helmet on her bike, tugging off the red and white shirt she'd put on earlier and tying it around her waist.

I would do the same, but I'm not going to. I'm sure I've got about a million reasons why not, but I can't actually remember what they were. Which is just another proof of my failing abilities to get dressed and think, another proof that my IQ is most likely below twenty. But we already knew that, didn't we?

In a burst of random Kate-ness Kate suddenly latched onto Craig's arm and pulled him towards the stairs, Craig letting himself be pulled along without protesting like the puppet-like thing he was. No matter what it was, as long as Kate asked, Craig would do it. No one really knew why.

I'm not even sure _they _knew why. Funny that. Maybe it was Kate's 'almost-lesbian'-powers kicking in.

Riot gave me a rather questioning look and I shrugged, automatically crossing my arms and glancing down on the ground. Another rather useless, annoying habit of mine. I started towards the stairs, Riot easily keeping up with my sleazy walking, neither of us wanting to lose sight of Kate and Craig as they tripped down the half-rotting stairs. The stairs in question happened to be slippery and unstable, a few steps missing here and there as they slithered down the steep hill and disappeared into the forest somewhat mysteriously.

They kept going into the forest, the heavy trees around us blocking out most of the sun and coating us in numerous shadows, Kate and Craig barely a few meters in front of us now.

"It's pretty," Riot glanced up at the sunlight forcing it's way through the trees, drawing lines of bright light in the air around us like a child having scrambled random lines across the floor with a sharpie.

"What are you doing here?" Kate exclaimed out of nowhere, cracking the magic of the moment and making us all halt.

"We... were curious,"

I pushed past Kate, dragging Riot along as I caught sight of Jess, Laura and a boy I hadn't seen before standing over by a rather huge, moldy rock. I furrowed my eyebrows, still holding onto Riot as the four of us barely managed to squish into a line and look at the three like they were aliens.

Did they walk all the way up here so fast? We're in the bloody middle of nowhere, they can't be faster than a motocross, can they?

… or maybe crashing takes a lot of time.

I crinkled my nose and realized that the stair-path-thing we were standing on disappeared into said huge, moldy rock rather sneakily. The mold on the rock actually looked a bit like a door, if you've got imagination enough to see it. An unstable, deformed door with a foot.

"What did you guys find, then?" Kate probably shook the confusion to how they got here so fast and grinned, jogging over to them as they were standing in front of the moldy-ish door.

"Just this," Laura, the little smart chick, said and brushed some dirt off the rock, "It seems to be some sort of... puzzle,"

"A puzzle?" Riot asked and we walked over, "What kind of puzzle?"

"I'm not sure," Laura frowned and brushed some more dirt off the rock, the symbols carved into the stone laughing at us as we hadn't got a clue what they said, "It looks like it's written in runes or something like it,"

I took a step closer hesitantly, still tugging Riot along with me as I grimaced and inspected the odd doodles. Which looked more like randomly placed lines than anything else, if you want a honest opinion.

"That's a T," Riot said suddenly, pointing to the arrow-like symbol popping up here and there, "Definitively a T,"

I blinked and turning to look at her, "You can read this?" I grinned slightly, "Impressive,"

Riot shrugged, a light smile tugging at her lips, "I've read a lot about Norse Mythology, this kind of popped up,"

"And that's H," Kate pointed to what looked like a deformed H, "Recognize it from Hedgehog's journal,"

"Then that's got to be an I," Laura pointed to the straight line between the T and H, "Hit?" she suggested, brushing some hair out of her face.

"Hang on," Craig pulled out his cellphone and flipped it open, smirking, "Let's see if we can google it,"

"Clever," Kate grinned, "When in doubt-"

"Google it," I finished, nodding, "Google is your friend,"

"More like my master," Kate laughed, "Maybe it's telling us to hit the internet,"

"Or to hit a rock," Craig walked closer to the rock, all of us inching closer curiously as he held up the cellphone in front of him so we could see the small page of similar doodle-things, "Alright... let's see what we get,"

"Hit a rock..." the unknown boy begun, hands in his pockets, "Find a ...?"

No one really understood what the last, faded jumbles said, so we skipped them and went straight to the next line. Because for some reason, some asshole had chiseled off the last doodle-things, which is actually quite suspicious. Someone wants to keep people far, far away from this pretty little rock.

Hm, now, that just makes it much more fun!

"Another tree will hold the ...," Laura continued the small riddle on the wall, tilting her head as we once again ran into unrecognizable doodles.

"To the..., to the left," Jess took the next line, oddly enough standing a bit further away from the rest of us, "It's half by half," she finished the riddle dully and bit her lip, "What does that mean?"

"Some of those things are too unclear to be read," Craig muttered, taking a picture of the riddle just to be sure, "I'm guessing that we should just punch the damn thing,"

"Why?" I scoffed and pointed to the numerous, huge rocks laying around everywhere, "There's too many rocks to go around and hit. And hitting rocks is kinda dumb,"

"Wow, genius," Craig rolled his eyes, flipping me off, "Maybe we should just clear away the branches and shit first and see if it says something actually useful?"

"Good idea," Riot nodded in approval and pulled away one of the branches, throwing it off to the side as the others started pulling away old, grouchy trees crawling up the rock and wipe dirt off the silly runes.

I... well, I didn't.

My shoulder hurt even more by now and - annoyingly enough - the world was being a bit unsteady. Things was kind of blurry, you could say, and kind of tilted. To the left, even. I'm not a big fan of left. I leaned heavily against the rail beside me, rubbing my forehead in annoyance as the others chattered quietly about the runes and their rather dumb message.

I couldn't really grasp it. My head yelled at me as the heat kept pushing me down, clawing at my back where a thin string of sun was trying to burn a hole through the shirt.

It hurts.

Everywhere.

"Nick?"

I blinked through the nasty feeling threatening to force my knees to give in and grinned weakly, "Uh, yeah?"

"Are you alright?" Jess asked quietly, "You look a bit..."

"Fine. 'm fine," I forced myself to smile, "Does the... eh, rock say anything more?"

A few seconds of silence, as if they were considering whenever they should drop the issue or not.

They better fucking drop it is all I'm saying.

"No," Craig leaned against the rock, his doofus hat making him look a bit like a retarded gnome from this angle, "I still say we hit it,"

"Then why don't you hit it, then?" Kate snapped, clearly impatient with the lack of action, before giving the rock a solid kick, drawing a somewhat silent click from it.

She blinked and took half a step back, "Did you hear that?"

"Did the rock just click?" Jess asked with a light frown, brushing some hair out of her eyes, "Rocks don't click,"

"We know that," Riot said and leaned against the rail beside me, crossing her arms and eying the rock, "Do it again,"

Kate rubbed her neck and grimaced, "Can't someone else do it? My foot hurts,"

"Wimp," Craig snorted and pushed away from the rock, smirking and flicking her forehead, "You have two feet,"

Kate scowled, flipping him off and opened her mouth to say something snappy, yet she was interrupted before she could start the snark-war.

"So do you," the still unknown boy cut in, "Would someone just kick the rock, please?"

"Surely," Jess stepped forward suddenly, giving the rock a somewhat swift, angry kick, another soft click echoing through the forest as a small rock fell down onto the wood under out feet, rolling towards my shoe happily.

Riot snatched it up quickly and surveyed the rock curiously as Kate appeared over her shoulder, staring wide-eyed down at the rock. I admit I'm more curious about Jess' mood-swings than a dumb rock, but let's put on a show for all the rock-enthusiasts.

"More runes," Riot awed, tilting her head and glancing towards Kate, "Two words,"

"What does it say?" Laura asked, glancing back to the runes on the insanely huge rock, "More nonsense?"

"No, it just says... Look low, I think," Riot handed the rock to the energetic Kate, shaking her head as Kate almost shoved the rock into her eye trying to get a good look.

"I agree with the misbehavior over here!" Kate declared, pointing towards Riot and instantly glanced down at the floor, "I also declare that there's nothing much down here, either,"

"Maybe we should look _under _the stairs?" Craig suggested with a shrug, looking a bit uncomfortable as everyone turned their questioning looks to him.

"Alright," he sighed, flipping us off and frowning, "We hit the fucking rock and... well, found a rock. That's the first part of this stupid riddle, right?"

"Yeah, the half-missing word could be rock," Laura seemed to light up, "Hit a rock, find a rock. The rock, very pointless rock, have to mean something,"

"These stairs are made of wood, so they could be the tree the thing is talking about," Jess said, "But these runes look incredibly old. These stairs can't have been around for that long,"

"Maybe they've been rebuilt a shitload of times?" Kate suggested, "Or someone made sure the riddle would fit. The rock might not have changed, but the forest probably did. What if the tree in question stood here... and was turned into the stairs?"

"Your sudden bursts of intelligence amaze me," Craig raised an eyebrow, "How long did it take you to figure out that?"

"A few minutes?" Kate shrugged, "But think about it. It made sense in my head, at least,"

"It actually does make sense," I cut in, struggling to ignore my pounding head as I turned to look at the rock, "Whoever made these stairs knew about the rock. They probably also cut down trees to get here, it would only make sense if they found whatever the tree in question and used it to make these stairs. If we're lucky, that is. They might have just taken whatever it is and left,"

"Unless it's one of the several other trees around us," Laura motioned to the trees around us, "But if you're right, then what we're looking for is around the stairs. But like Nick said, whoever has been here before might just have walked off with whatever it is,"

"Under the stairs," Jess mused as she grabbed the rock Kate was holding, "Everything is telling us to go down, right? Only makes sense if it's somewhere around the stairs, it would be under it. Pretending that the people that built the stairs made sure the riddle still fits, that is,"

"They would," Riot glanced down at the mossy ground covering everything around us like a blanket, "There's no reason not to. I think,"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Kate asked loudly, ungracefully slinging herself over the rail and landing on the soft moss on the other side, standing far below us.

Maybe not far below us, but her head barely reached my knees as she stood on the ground, curiously peeking in under the stairs we stood on. Craig swiftly followed, as did Jess, Laura and the unknown boy.

"How's your shoulder?" Riot asked quietly as we stood on the stairs somewhat awkwardly, "And head? You don't look too good,"

"I'm alive and breathing, don't worry," I shrugged and bit back a wince as I looked over my shoulder, seeing Kate's back as she carefully crept further in under the stairs.

She was too fucking curious for her own good. Even after having been so unlucky and tripped over a dead dude on one of her bounces of random, she hadn't actually stopped investigating whatever she found interesting.

One day, she'd end up haunted by a mummy or something, I swear she will.

… on second thought, let's just keep her away from anything that could come back to life and kill us all.

"I found something!" Laura hollered from under the stairs followed by dull scraping somewhere directly beneath my feet, "It's... some sort of key,"

"Aw, shit," Kate knocked on the wood under our feet, "Does any of you see a keyhole on the rock?"

I glanced over at the rock before shrugging, glancing over at Riot. She shrugged as well and glanced down at the murky wood beneath our feet.

"Can't say I do," Riot frowned, "Why?"

"Cause we'd need something to unlock?" Kate asked, "Aw, then how do we open the goddamn door?"

* * *

**THOD - **Yes... how do we open the goddamn door? Is it even a door? Who is this unknown boy?

And why is this blasted author so slow with updates?

You'll have to find out... in chapter 8.

Read&review! xD


	8. He Doesn't Want The Company

**THOD - **Zoom zoom! I'm back - already - with an update! How friggin' amazing ain't that? I'm just so blasted happy to get to torture all your wonderful OC's with pwetty little LOSeRS-Land! Cause there's more adventure here than anyone asked for, I'm afraid. Though, heed my warning. Your OC might - or might not - end up fatally wounded.

Or dead.

I can't help it. I'm on a roll now. Haven't slept for three days and have been living off Pringles and coffee.

GO IDIOCY!

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 8  
He Doesn't Want The Company_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

"Right..." Kate sighed, rubbing her neck and casting another look towards the rock, frowning slightly, "Still no ideas?"

So far, we've been sitting here – I'm still standing, I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to get up if I do sit down – for almost an hour, trying to think of a way to get through the Goddamn door, as we'd named it. Because, according to the runes by the key, it is a door.

Not just an ugly, mossy rock.

"This is getting stupid," Craig mumbled, leaning against the rock, frowning, "We should've brought dynamite,"

"... isn't that rather stupid?" Kate furrowed her eyebrows, "Dynamite goes boom, if you didn't know. That wouldn't be exactly clever,"

"Sarcasm, girl," Craig rolled his eyes, shifting slightly and tapping the rock, "Th-"

Yet another silent click echoed through the rock, the part Craig was leaning against appearing to sink into the rock slightly. The distinct shape of a door was painfully obvious now, everyone staring rather dumbly at the previously smooth rock as time seemed to pause and smack us for our sheer dumbness. No one dared moving, specially not Craig, whom looked painfully pale where he sat, completely frozen and staring at the air in front of him with an eyebrow twitching in irritation.

"You've got to be kidding," Laura stared blankly at the rock, "That... is idiotically simple,"

"Jesus!" Kate exclaimed, jumping to her feet and practically launching herself at the rock, Craig barely managing to dodge the manic girl before he got smooshed between her knee and the door.

The door-shaped part of the rock sunk further in as Kate collided rather painfully with the rock, another click snapping everyone back to reality as Jess and Craig went over to help open the door, Craig in particular, an obviously annoyed scowl painted onto his face. Craig doesn't take shit from anyone.

Specially not a fucking _door_.

Riot, Laura and the unknown boy watched curiously and I stood of to the side, the small rock from earlier still in my hand as we saw the door being pushed away and somehow disappearing into the depth the rock, leaving a gap big enough for us to go through. Time paused again to give me an extra slap on the head for good measure, my headache getting steadily worse as the looming darkness appeared to reach out and attempt to pull me into the nasty, slimy cave.

I'm actually having my doubts about this. But nevermind me, I'm just along for the sex. Which is getting more and more obvious, in all honesty.

"Wow," Jess breathed, brown eyes sparkling with curiosity, "Should we... eh, go in?"

I couldn't help the small grin forcing it's way onto my face, shaking my head slightly and watching quietly from the sidelines. I still stand on my earlier comment of having a soft spot for Jess.

And I've always liked my girls curious.

"Well of course!" Kate frowned and slipped through the gap without a second through, instantly blending in with the darkness staring back at us from behind the door.

... unless it's Kate. I just can't think of Kate that way. No matter how friggin' curious she is.

"There's actually something here," Riot awed, standing straighter and trying to get a better look, "That's so cool!"

"I know," I smirked, slinging an arm across her shoulders and tugging her along towards the door, the ghost of a blush on her pretty little face not going unnoticed, "You going in?"

"I don't know," Riot shrugged casually, "Are you?"

"I never say no to an adventure... specially if I might get killed and won't have to go home," I chirped, resiting the urge to smack myself as I got a rather curious look.

And because I don't want to go in at all. Lies, I tell you, lies. I always say no to an adventure, dammit.

"W-"

"Come on!" Kate stuck her head back out, an almost manic grin on her face, "Get in here, fools!"

Her hand shot out from the dark and grabbed Craig's arm, dragging him into the darkness and making her appear more like a homicidal rapist than an excited teen as his ridiculous hat was eaten by the fleeting darkness.

"Right-o," Laura grabbed the wrist of the unknown boy and disappeared into the cave without hesitating, "Let's get moving!"

Jess glanced over her shoulder, lips pulled into a tense, disapproving line as she eyed us. Her hands were clenched, her entire posture stiff and defensive. Something was bothering her, even I could see that, I just have no bloody clue what. She sighed, shoulders sagging slightly and slid into the darkness as well, leaving Riot and myself staring at the ominous hole in the rock with mixed feelings.

"Better get going," Riot piped up, grinning slightly as we started towards the hole, claustrophobia creeping up my spine as Riot slipped through the gap carelessly.

The blind darkness in front of me made my throat feel like sandpaper as I reached out a shaky hand, pressed up against the rock while giving the door a suspicious and sliding past it painfully slow. My hands shook uncontrollably as I kept throwing nervous looks over my shoulder, hearing the whispers of the others in front of me.

"Everyone here?" Kate's voice called from somewhere in front of me, "I mean, can we get going? We probably shouldn't split up in here,"

The carelessness in her voice made me want to throw up, yet I knew I'm unfair. Then again, I'm an insanely unfair person. I judge people and I'm a hypocritical whore. No matter how much guilt gnawed at me for being mad at her, I scowled, a twinge of jealousy sparkling through the dark.

I wish I could be that careless. Instead of being an absolutely paranoid freak, if you get my drift.

"You're right," Laura said, "Getting lost all by yourself in here ain't a good idea. Let's try to not lose anyone,"

"Sur- shit!" Kate yelped as another hollow click ran through the walls, the door sliding shut behind me and kicking the feeling of being suffocated onto me as the last light faded, complete nothingness covering everything.

"Fuck, I can't see anything!"

"Is everyone alright?"

"Who's that?"

"What happened?"

"I-I tripped over something,"

I'm pretty sure this isn't the time to admit that I'm claustrophobic. Incredibly claustrophobic, in all honesty. Panic was already shrieking louder than any injury I'd gotten, even my possibly cracked shoulder having gone quiet as I struggled to keep my breathing steady. Leaning heavily against the wall as my knees were threatening to give in again, I tried to think about happy things.

_Anything _happy.

The room appeared to shake and sink together as all kinds of possible disasters raced through my head instead of the flowers and unicorns I'd wanted, disastrous scenarios battling out a raging fight in my mind.

"Nick! Nick, are you alright?"

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I literally threw myself away without thinking, automatically assuming it was my cousin standing there, ready to throw a punch. I hit the door with my shoulder and winced, cursing my luck and realizing I've really turned paranoid. A restless hand reached up and tugged at the collar of my shirt,

"Nick, what's wrong?"

I could vaguely recognize the voice as Jess and tried to collect my mind, knowing I didn't want _her _of all people to see me like this. Though, collecting any sort of mind seemed downright impossible as panic was tugging back rather harshly, yanking any trace of common sense along with it.

"I need to get out of here," I forced out between clenched teeth, the familiar ghosts slithering through the dark walls and making it harder to breathe as the seconds ticked by.

"Look, Nick,"

I swear if I could remember how to think clearly I'd be KO'd at the seriousness in Kate's voice, the silent, careful shuffles in front of me only making the nervousness worse. The urge to run away and find a way out was worse than ever before, the outlines of people in front of me adding to the freezing fright trying to dig it's way through my ribcage.

"You need to calm down," she continued softly, "And tell us what's going on,"

The words made something snap, the last piece of self-control crumbling under the rising panic and I sneered into the darkness, "Get the hell away from me,"

"Seri-"

"Leave me alone!"

I didn't think as I launched myself towards the blurry outlines of people, pushing them out of the way and sprinting down into the unknown ahead, ignoring the mixed cries from behind me as the distance between myself and the door grew by every step. I couldn't see anything at all, relying on luck and living of the fact that I haven't run straight into a wall. Which was nothing short of a miracle.

The dirt under my shoes eventually morphed into gravel as the corridor made a sharp turn and got steeper with each new, unexpected turn. The air got heavier, the temperature steadily dropping the further I went.

The gravel turned to grass and the grass turned to slick, slippery stone before I was even aware of it.

It felt like I'd been going for days, the corridors stretching out for miles and taunting me with it's confusing twists and turns. The temperature had to be dangerously close to zero by now, seeping through the cross-gear easily and making my already shaking hands worse. I almost felt like an ice-dancer as the stone under my feet kept making me slip, keeping me on my feet was quite a feat. The moisture clinging to the wall eventually turned into running water, building up as it followed me down.

And as my last drop of luck fell from the roof, a crack in the stone grabbed my ankle and took me down. My side hit the ground hard and knocking the air straight out of my lungs, the panic going with it as my head collided with the damp rock a second later.

My mind crashed back down on me as the previous pain from the crash once again sprung to life, only several times as bad. Most specifically, my head was more than literally killing me from where it'd hit the ground. I couldn't shake off the dimming panic completely as random images of never being found scraped at my attention, slinking through quickly and blending in with the countless other memories and worried thoughts hiding. The narrow corridor still felt like it was trying to choke me as a few troublesome, bitter coughs broke through the silence.

The awfully familiar taste of blood came with it, forcing itself up my throat as I dully noted I'd have to do some serious damage-control later on.

A whispering, constant trickle of running water was attempting to soak my hair as it was trickling down the steep corridor in the tiniest stream, my unfortunate head almost having landed in the obviously hand-made path in the floor. The path slithered it's way down the corridor, hiding by the wall and laughing quietly as the freezing water tried to wash away the hopelessness of all poor souls having gotten lost in the underground maze.

Cold was worming it's way through my clothes and breathing through my spine, numbing whatever feelings I had left. I could hear the far-away echoes of the others, calling out some sort of gibberish words, their footsteps washed away along with any reasons to keep fighting to get out.

Because I had, essentially, given up before even going in.

Everything seemed to dim as I just listened to the frantic, worried yells tearing through the silence, struggling to stay awake. The water nipped at my hand every now and then, playfully sneaking off it's path and making sure the ground was death-trap for the next poor sucker wandering along. Even though I wasn't even sure which hand was laying close to the water and which hand wasn't, both hands having gone numb a lifetime ago.

And then I was sitting beside myself, watching my rather miserable, skinny self lay there, fighting to keep breathing through the infinite number of reasons to give up. Then again, surely, this isn't the first time I've been like this. Not the first time I've been tasting copper or tried to figure out a reason to keep going.

The countless times I've had my head slammed against a wall, the countless times I've taken a particularly harsh kick and found myself kicked straight out of myself, as odd as it sounds.

I watched silently as the thin trail of blood mixed with the lively stream with dull fascination, the darkness around me having gradually faded to leave room for the almost faded inside of the Cave.

Which would, most likely, become the grave of another kid tonight.

Bundle of joy, ain't I?

* * *

Kate yelped as she was pushed into the wall, the panicked boy speeding past her and leaving the group behind as they tried to gather themselves in a few tense seconds. They all knew they had to stick together, the fact that panicked people don't think rationally beating down on the remaining teens in the corridor as they grasped the real danger that glared back at them from the dark.

"Shit," Craig grabbed the nearest person, "We've got to follow him! If he gets lost or something happens in here, he'll friggin' die before we find him!"

"Get moving!" Laura commanded as they moved, rather carefully in the beginning, down the dark path in front of them.

Craig was pulling along Riot, whom easily kept up with his long strides, Jess close behind them. Laura and the unknown boy – which was her brother, they'd found out earlier – kept up with the fast pace without much hassle, Kate bringing up the rear as they met their first turn.

"Nick would go right," Jess supplied instantly, "He's just like that,"

"I agree," Kate said as they squinted to see in the darkness, "Doesn't someone have a flashlight?"

"Funny you'd mention it," Jess stuck a hand into her pocket, yanking out a small flashing and pointing it ahead, "I knew this would come in handy one day,"

"Give it here," Craig reached out a hand, swiping the flashlight from Jess' hands instantly, "Good thinking, though,"

"I know," Jess grinned lightly, "Which way now?"

"Straight ahead, if possible," Kate ordered, "Just keep going,"

And so, the desperate hunt through the incredible maze begun, the group of teens fumbling their way through the witty darkness without knowing if any of them would make it out alive.

* * *

**THOD - **ANGST. I HAS IT.

I know this chapter is rather... I feel it's rather meaningless, but I just can't seem to do much more for it right now. I'm posting even thought I'm not pleased - AT ALL - with this. I've edited like a hundred times and this is about as good as it gets. And actually, I've drawn this scene, so if anyone wants to take a look, let me know and I'll see if I can scan it. :D

... noo, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Fucking yay.

Read&review? :'D


	9. Hello Boys And Girls!

**THOD - **Don't hit me! D: This chapter is short and possibly confusing. Then again, it's 4am and I haven't slept since Sunday. Dx

Now, let's truly wander into LOSeRS-Land! And a slight warning; after this chapter, we will get to see less of the other OC's and canon-characters for possibly one - three chapters. But those chapters will also explain quite a bit about what's truly going on. So yah.

Prepare to be confused!

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 9  
Hello Boys And Girls_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

The concerned yells had dimmed down to a quiet, worried whisper every now and then as time had unfrozen itself and launched into it's old patterns.

It can't have been much more than a few minutes, yet it feels like it's been days already. My hands are still shaking violently, my head feeling like it'd been run over by a truck and stapled together. The initial shock and panic was wearing off, but kept it's steely grip around my throat, making breathing more of a hassle than anything else.

With a silent whimper I lifted my hand, drops of ice-cold water running down my arm as I moved my fingers carefully, grimacing at the general numbness. Everything hurts, hurts fucking bad.

Goddamnit, I need a friggin' box of painkillers.

"F-fuck," I gritted my teeth, wincing as I somehow managed to sit up, "I fucking swear I'll kill whoever made this damn tunnel,"

I glanced around, not really quite sure how I ended up in this particular spot, nor how I missed the frigging huge picture on the wall in front of me. I blinked up at the massive piece of art carved into the wall, the crisscrossing lines spreading out over the damp stone-wall.

… but I have no clue what it's supposed to be.

I tilted my head slightly, a silent crack running up my spine, rippling through the silence and tugging reality back down into the corridor. The light dribbling of water and everlasting echoes of the others kept bouncing off the walls, what sounded like footsteps snaking along with the water.

With a noticeable amount of trouble I managed to get to my feet, caveman art long forgotten, leaning heavily against the wall as I threw a confused look down the corridor I'd come from, seeing absolutely nothing spectacular there. I turned to glance down the unexplored corridor on my right, musing into the darkness, not quite sure what I was looking at.

Curious despite myself I staggered closer, hoping my gut wasn't playing tricks on me for once as the hallway got noticeably steeper with each step, the air getting heavier. The soaked shirt weighed me down, chilling me to the bone and basically making my life more miserable than needed.

I instantly stopped as my foot landed in a mass of water with a soft splash, much more than just the small stream mocking my every move, realizing that the corridor made an abrupt dip down and had, essentially, gotten filled up completely with water.

Meaning there _has _to be something awesome on the other side.

Disregarding the fact that I cannot swim and is slightly afraid of water, my gut convinced me that it would be a splendid idea to dive into the freezing water and see what's on the other side.

Because the odds of drowning doesn't matter to me.

I'm invincible.

I tugged off the heavy cross-shirt and dropped it onto the floor, shivering, yet noticing that it wasn't as cold as I'd originally thought. The different outcomes of this act of stupidity didn't really matter, the water in front of me appearing to whisper comforting words as I kicked off my boots, biting my lip hesitantly.

Something about going down to what could possibly be my death seemed awfully right, yet, my head tried to tell me otherwise as I awkwardly took a step into the freezing water, expecting my feet to turn into blocks of ice instantly.

Funny thing is; the water was seriously warm.

The even more funny thing was that it felt like I was walking on grass.

I looked down on my feet in confusion, seeing nothing but the still water smiling back up at me, looking like completely ordinary water as far as I could see. And I highly doubt you could mistake a patch of grass for water, even if it's dark.

Taking another slow, hesitant step forward I didn't bother hiding the light grin forcing it's way onto me, the constant pain fading away with each step, the everlasting dizziness left behind in the cold hallway. As I took another step, the water already reaching my knees, I could literally feel sunshine on my feet.

The silent comforting words slowly morphed into twinkling laughter, sounding so far away, yet so close as I took another few steps, the water nipping at my ribs by now, almost like it was telling me to go on.

Biting down on my lip nervously and shutting my eyes, I dived into it, throwing myself forward. And instantly stopped as I collided with a very much unmovable mass in front of me, my face complaining loudly as I staggered back, staring up at the object in front of me in confusion. Confusion that turned to awe in less than a millisecond, the sight in front of me almost unbelievable.

A rather huge, scary tree was staring back at me.

... I cannot believe I walked into a tree.

Still mighty confused, I turned slightly to see an insanely, completely ridiculously big forest lined up in front of me. The trees were at least ten times taller than me – and I'm not exactly short – and thicker than any tree I'd ever seen before. They were so typically green and brown, clinging to each other and leaving almost no space between the giant roots sticking up of the ground, slinking together into some sort of roadblock.

It wouldn't be easy finding your way though that forest, I swear.

"Look! Look! It's another one, it's another one!"

I blinked at the high-pitched voice and turned swiftly, not seeing anything at first. I furrowed my eyebrows and glanced around, gaping stupidly as I finally laid eyes on the owner of the squeaky voice.

Maybe Craig was right.

I've lost my damn mind.

* * *

"He's nowhere," Kate declared dully, throwing her hands into the air in frustration, "The damn idiot disappeared,"

"He can't be nowhere," Laura said quietly, glancing back into the dark corridor they'd come from, "Maybe we're trying too hard. We should look for clues to where we should go to get out of here,"

"I agree," Craig crossed his arms, "Either we die in here looking for him or we get out. Right now, I'm voting for getting out of here,"

"So, what you're saying is," Riot started, also crossing her arms and glaring up at him, "That we should leave Nick here. To die. That sounds plain horrible,"

"Yeah. And it is," Craig scowled, "He ran off. His fucking problem,"

"We're obviously getting ahead of ourselves here," Laura's brother, Lloyd said calmly, stepping in between them, "Yes, we should look for a way out of here. And no, we can't just leave anyone here to die,"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Kate whined, giving the blonde boy a look and grabbing Laura's shoulder lightly, pushing her towards her brother, "You two. You're smart. Figure something out,"

"Or," Jess cut in, having wandered over the wall as they'd argued, "We could follow the directions on the walls,"

"... say what now?"

"Look," she sighed and rolled her eyes, motioning for them to come closer, "It's runes. I think it's telling us something,"

Kate immediately rushed over, somewhat resembling a squirrel on crack as she examined the wall closely, nose barley an inch from it, "Indeed! This wall has writing on it!"

If Kate's insane mood-swings wasn't enough, her absolutely obvious statements and silly excitement for everything surely topped it off. The hyperactive behavior was entertaining to a certain limit, but when trapped inside a maze of underground tunnels, having a girl bouncing off the wall and finding everything incredibly awesome wasn't too fun in the long run.

Craig idly reached up and rubbed his forehead, gritting his teeth as his last nerve was about to give in. Laura and Lloyd exchanged looks, Riot sighing and nudging the siblings towards the wall, casting Craig a sour look as he sneered and followed sceptically.

"Alright, let's see what's going on here, then," Craig muttered, fishing out his phone, "Shine on the piece of shit, would you?"

Jess didn't look to pleased at the rude request, but held up the flashlight, Craig taking a picture of the runes in case they'd need it later. He nodded to himself and attempted to find Google, which proved to be an impossible feat. With a cheerful beep, the phone announced that Google could not be found, Craig shoving the phone back into his pocket with his typical frown.

"Let me guess," Laura sighed and reached up, tucking some of her hair behind her ear, "No signal. No internet,"

"Points for you," Craig muttered, glaring down at her, "How we going to find out what it says, then?"

"Uhm... it says 'three more rights', I think," Laura said, sending half-a glare back up at him, "And to answer that question, reading it seems to be working just fine,"

"It looks about right," Kate glanced over to Craig anxiously, yet smirking slightly as she noticed how clearly offended he was, "Right?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just stop saying right," he growled, not too keen on being owned by someone over a head shorter than himself, starting to walk down the corridor without waiting for the rest of them.

Craig is not amused.

Riot grinned and held up a hand towards Laura, the shorter girl high-fiving her with a matching, victorious grin. Kate laughed and latched onto the nearest person - whom happened to be an unfortunate Lloyd - and dragging him down the hallway. Jess scoffed at them and pointing her flashlight down the hall as the group started moving, being merciful enough to share some of her light. And it gave her a perfect view of the numerous hilarious things happening as Craig was a few steps ahead at all times, always being the one to trip over particularly big rocks or the one to slip when the ground turned mischievous.

They made their way through the corridors, Kate having locked herself onto Lloyd's elbow by now, refusing to let go and Craig throwing him a pitying look every now and then. But they kept going, an awkward silence settling around them.

A silence Kate surely didn't find appropriate.

"Why don't we like... talk?" Kate asked, frowning slightly and glancing up at Lloyd, "It's getting awkward,"

"Then what do you suggest we talk about?" Jess asked, glancing over at her lazily, "I've got nothing,"

"I don't know," Kate shrugged, "Tell random stories,"

"Why don't you start, then?" Craig said and flipper her off over his shoulder, "Since you suggested it,"

"Fine," Kate pouted, "Eh, well, a few days before we got here, I was like... going down to breakfast and, you know, grabbed a bowl, filled it with cereal and milk and that stuff,"

"And?" Riot asked, walking right in front of Kate and Lloyd with Laura by her side, "Doesn't sound very interesting,"

"Let me guess," Craig slowed down to let the others catch up, "You dropped it? Or ended up spilling it all over yourself?"

Kate stuck her tongue out, "No. But you imagine my surprise when I found out that I'd grabbed a box of macaroni instead of cereal,"

A few amused snickers broke the otherwise tense atmosphere, successfully raising the mood a notch or three.

"Really?" Laura grinned, "Macaroni? Wasn't that nasty?"

"Very," Kate agreed, crinkling her nose, "Uncooked macaroni with strawberry-jam. Absolutely horrible,"

A few more random, pointless stories was swapped as the group made their final right, Kate having launched into another story of how she had embarrassed herself in public by replying to a random call of 'Marco' with 'Porno' instead of 'Polo'.

Needless to say, no one found this very surprising.

However, before Kate could continue her oral biography, a sudden dead end threw itself over them, leaving them all staring at a wall with an arrow pointing down painted onto it with a surprisingly white color.

"That's it?" Jess asked, running the flashlight over the wall as the initial shock of being ambushed by a dead end settled, "An arrow? Dead end?"

"Seriously?" Laura crouched and picked up an old, rusty key laying directly beneath the arrow, "Are you retarded?"

No one felt like commenting as Laura held out the key for all to see, a few disbelieving looks being cast toward the arrow on the wall.

"That's too damn obvious to be true," Kate pouted, still hanging onto Lloyd like her life depended on it, "I feel so stupid,"

"... I'm not even gonna bother,"

* * *

**THOD - **Oyeah. I did it. And, as usual, I'm a bit unsure about this, but whatever. Let me know what you think! And, le gasp, what the fuck just happened?

Well, I have no clue either.

Read&review!


	10. Where Are You? Why Do You Hide?

**THOD - **Well, looks like we're getting somewhere! This, people, is LOSeRS-Land. Behold it's wonders. :D I'm being a bit slow with updates, yah, but we're getting there. Mwahahaha!

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 10  
Where Are You? Why Do You Hide?  
_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

I stared stupidly down at the short people – I think it's people, at least – in front of me, nothing less than baffled as the tiny, blonde, boyish looking person grinned widely.

There were several of these small, breakable people standing behind the one that had spoken, all staring up at me curiously. Most of them were blonde or had an unusually light shade of brown or red hair, not a black hair in sight anywhere. Their clothes looked like it had been made out of whatever they could find, leaves and what might be the skin of some dead animal repeating itself several times.

Though, what baffled me the most was how they all appeared to glow, appeared to radiate from some sort of internal sunshine or something equally gay.

For some reason, I have a feeling they'd all glow in the dark, too.

Note to self; test that theory later.

"Uhm, excuse me?" I kept staring stupidly, "S-say what now?"

The tiny, glow-in-the-dark boy laughed, extending a hand and tugging at my pants, "You has to come with us,"

I raised an eyebrow, "Why the fuck... eh, and who are you?"

"We're the Ljósálfar," he said, clearly not bothered by my cursing, and tugged at my pants again, "Now come, come! The other tall one is waiting!"

The rest of the Ljósálfar flocked around my feet, pushing me forward while eagerly talking about 'the other tall one' and other nonsense I just couldn't manage to hang onto. And, once again listening to my gut, I let them. The top of their little heads barely reached my waist, their hands grabbing onto my hands and attempting to pull me along. Still not sure what's going on, I surveyed the unnaturally green landscape laid in front of us for any possible clue to where we might be going. But alas, all I could see was hills covered with nothing but green grass and a lone tree popping up once in a while. And came to only one conclusion.

I'm dead. And this is some sort of fucked-up dwarf-heaven.

… hope they have lasagna.

"I'm confused," I mumbled, glancing down on the tiny people, "Where are we going?"

"To the village, of course!" The boy from before explained, "My name is Vaaír, I lead friends on adventures!"

Slightly confused at his unpronounceable name and the way he said things, I decided to ask a few more, completely worthless questions, "So... this is actually real?"

"Of course!" Vaaír said like it was obvious, though, starting to annoy me with his excessive use of 'of course', "What did you think?"

"I was holding a coin on having lost my mind," I mumbled and glanced over my shoulder, seeing the gigantic forest slowly disappearing behind us and melting into the green nothingness all around us.

"How far is it?" I asked hesitantly, not seeing anything but the hills in front of us, "I didn't see anything anywhere,"

"On the other side of these hills," Vaaír began, "We find _Dei Hvískande Skogane,_" he looked up, "It'll take us an hour to walk, I assume, if we walk faster,"

"And... what's that?" I raised an eyebrow, not really giving a damn what they called the place as long as I knew what the hell it was, "You small people are confusing,"

One of the tiny people clutching my hand sighed, "Weren't you leestening?" she asked, her odd accent only confusing me further.

Then again, the fact that these mini-people could speak proper English confused me.

I'm confused a lot, ain't I?

"We're álfar," she continued, my comment clearly having offended her somehow, "Not leetle people,"

"What's that?" I frowned, "I have no clue what... I don't know, an arlf is,"

"_Álf_," she corrected with a slight sneer, "That's..."

"Elf," Vaaír cut in, waving a hand at us carelessly, "They call us elves, Sindri,"

"Stupid humeen," Sindri muttered, looking particularly displeased with the whole ordeal, "_Dei Hvískande Skogane _is the forest we leeve in,"

"Right," I gave the tiny, annoying person a look, "A forest. How absolutely obvious to someone that doesn't speak gibberish,"

"Oy!" Sindri halted, the rest of the elves pausing to watch, "Don't geeve me that tone!"

This behaviour clearly didn't surprise the other elves, a few whispers breezing through the crowd, making me feel insanely out of place as I glanced down on the tiny girl uncertainly. I felt like I was getting into a fight and they were just there to see who got their ass kicked.

Most of the time in situations like this, I stood by and watched, making bets with people. Standing in the middle of the crowd... it's making me nervous, really. Kinda makes me wonder if they'd notice if I tried to sneak off.

I have a feeling they would.

"What did I do?" I asked and frowned, expecting some sort of smart-ass comment back, bravely glaring down at the fuming elf.

But no, instead of a well-placed insult, she swiftly kicked my shin, surprisingly hard for such a tiny girl. I jumped back without thinking, muttering a few halfhearted curses under my breath.

Sindri huffed and crossed her arms, wearing a disgustingly cocky smirk as she glared up at me, clear blue eyes holding promises of pain and suffering. I admit myself unsure what to think about this obviously unstable thing.

Reaching down and rubbing my sore shin, I pouted, "What was that for?"

"You peess me off," Sindri raised her fist threateningly and I automatically took a step back, gaining a few giggles from the other elves.

Realizing I'd just been intimidated by a person half my size – and a girl at that – I couldn't help the embarrassed blush forcing itself onto me, only awarding me more giggles from the teeny-tiny people.

Sometimes I wish I could just sink into the ground.

Seriously.

"Sindri, don't scare him," Vaaír said with a clearly amused smile, "Keep going. We needn't be late,"

* * *

Walking around in the scalding sun for two hours with a ticked off elf and another dozen snickering ones wasn't exactly how I'd imagined my day, but as we reached this forest they'd been going on about, I was once again amazed.

The forest was thinner, brighter and much more welcoming than the other forest, looking like it'd come straight out a story-book with the countless branches hanging down around and framing the path slithering between the skinny trees. There were more bright colors than what should be legal, the ground covered in fallen, horribly green leaves.

As we ventured into the forest, I expected to step on sharp rocks or at least pine-needles. But the ground was soft and scarily warm and the dirt under my feet wasn't actually dirty, just there.

And the goddamned sun still wouldn't stop shining, not even _inside _the fucking forest.

This shouldn't be possible. But, then again, walking into a puddle of water and ending up in front of a forest shouldn't be possible.

… I'm so fucking lost right now.

And what the fuck is up with this place and annoyingly bright colours, anyway?

"Where are we, anyway?" I asked quietly, a bit afraid that speaking too loud would drag me back to reality.

I admit, this place is fabulous despite it's creepiness. I ain't too keen on being swapped back into a gloomy cave just yet.

"Eh, didn't we already tell you where we are?" Vaaír asked, "I'm afraid I'm not following,"

"That's not it," I reached up and scratched the back of my neck nervously, constantly looking around, suddenly worried that I'd get swapped back into the cave.

I realized I want to see as much as possible of this fairytale-forest. After all, not every day you get the chance to see something this, right?

"This entire place. What is it?"

"Oh!" Vaaír nodded, smiling brightly, "This is Álfheim, our home,"

"You've really got to teach me how to pronounce your weird-ass names for things," I mumbled, gawking at a rather peculiarly shaped rock covered in moss, "Are you the only peop- sorry, I mean, elves living here?"

"We are, yes, yes," Sindri said, still tugging at my hand despite finding me absolutely retarded, "Then again, at times, we get veeseeted by the messenger of Freyr, Skírnir, when we are needed. Eet happens much lateely, as the Gods are prepareeng for battle,"

"Wait, what?" I frowned as the elves dragged me further into the forest, the sunlight gradually dimming as the trees huddled closer together, almost like they were trying to protect whatever we were headed for.

"What... what?" Vaaír said, glancing over his shoulder at me, "Have you not heard of the great Freyr?"

"Not really, but that's not it. What was that about... preparing for battle?"

The shrieking feeling of something being wrong once again returned, climbing up my back and latching itself onto my shoulder. I noticed the elves exchanging uncomfortable looks, as if they were trying to decide whenever to tell me or not, the uneasy feeling's manic laughter echoing around us.

Then again, might just be me going insane and hearing things.

"We'll tell you leeter," Sindri announced loudly, obviously not giving a shit if anyone disagreed, "We're almost there. Just around the corner here,"

I furrowed my eyebrows as Vaaír suddenly changed directions, walking over to what looked like a massive, giant bush stretching out on either side of us and climbing up the trees, looking almost like a wall of leaves. With a mischievous smile, Vaaír pulled slightly at some of the branches, giving me a glimpse of what was on the other side.

And, for the third or fifteenth time, left me gaping.

Sindri rolled her little blue eyes and pushed away the branches, motioning for me to go through, impatiently raising a fist.

I didn't hesitate.

The sight that met me on the other side was quite impressing.

It looked plainly like a very, very big tree. The odd thing was the several holes scattered seemingly randomly on it, disappearing up the massively tall tree, giving the impression of the tree being hollow inside. This tree was probably four times the size of the trees in the slightly creepy forest I'd first seen, too, which makes it absolutely gigantic. Small, busy-looking elves ran from here to there, some running out of their little windows and onto the small bridges stretching out to the other trees around, several of them also lined up with these window-like holes.

Like an entire village inside a bunch of trees.

Damn, that's neat.

"How do you expect me to fit into that thing?" I asked as it dawned on me how tiny their doors and windows were, "It's tiny,"

"There's a cottage behind eet," Sindri said and raised an eyebrow as if silently asking _'You stupid?'_

"Oh," I shrugged, sticking out my tongue at her, "Can't expect me to know that,"

"Shame," Sindri muttered, the cocky smirk from earlier returning, "I expect you to know eet, humeen,"

I frowned, deciding not to answer and follow Vaaír instead like the confused, lost person I am, the rest of the elves resumed tugging me along towards these mysterious cottages. A few other elves peeked out of the gigantic tree, watching curiously and whispering among themselves as we passed them. I couldn't help myself and waved cheerfully, Sindri mumbling something about 'stupeed humeen' from beside me.

They waved back.

Heh, I'm loved.

Ducking to avoid walking straight into some of their funky little bridges and tearing them down with my neck I tried to hear what the tiny monsters where saying, having started up a little secret, whisper-whisper conversation among themselves. Though, I mostly refer to Sindri with that 'monster' part.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but that tiny freak scares me.

Still mulling the fact that such a small thing could scare me I followed Vaaír into a plain, wooden cottage-like thing, glancing around carelessly.

Until I caught sight of the person sitting in the corner, talking quietly to another nameless elf.

"W-what the fuck are you doing here?"

The person looked up from her conversation, the little elf beside her flashing us all a grin and disappearing in a cloud of glowing dust as she stood abruptly from the chair she was sitting on, smiling widely. I stared stupidly, trying to register what I was seeing, my head finding it absolutely impossible for her to be standing in front of me, looking just like the last time I saw her. The massive amount of confusion from earlier paled in comparison to this, leaving me very much speechless.

"Same as you, I suppose," she said, briefly pausing to wave at Vaaír, "Saving the world, exploring things and going on a damn neat adventure!"

* * *

"You can't be serious," Riot mumbled, idly rubbing her temples, having come to understand what kind of people she was stuck with not too long ago, "Don't you have common sense?"

"Hmm, I do," Kate shrugged, grinning widely as she'd spent the last hour telling more ridiculous stories of her idiocy, "I just don't use it too much,"

"We noticed," Craig sighed and shook his head, being one of the few to have realized that Kate's common sense was a lost cause.

"So," Laura started, giving the clingy brunette a look, "You went into McDonalds, ordered a happy-meal and demanded extra 'happy' with it?"

"Of course!" Kate sounded almost offended, "Ordinary happy-meals aren't nearly happy enough!"

"Why do you even think about these kind of things?" Jess asked from the front of the group, letting the light from the flashlight light up the walls around them as they made their way through the underground maze.

"Someone's gotta think about that too," Kate shrugged, still not having let go of Lloyd, "I consider myself a vital part of the world for thinking about the things no one else thinks about,"

"... right,"

"Didn't we pass here earlier?" Jess paused, pointing the flashlight down a corridor to their right, musing into the darkness, "How did we miss this?"

"Look... grass," Laura said softly, pointing to the ground, "Why would there be grass down here?"

"I have no idea," Jess leaned down, lightly running a hand over the green grass, "It's... oddly dry. And warm. Isn't this place all cold and clammy?"

"Yeah, kind of," Craig frowned, eying the grass suspiciously, "That's kind of weird, ain't it?"

"Uh, yeah. It is," Kate raised an eyebrow, dragging Lloyd towards the grass and poking the edge of it with her shoe, "It's mighty weird. I say we cross it and see what's on the other side! Come, horsie!"

Lloyd gave her a bemused look, but wisely let himself get pulled down the corridor without any sort of protest. Realizing there was no other choice but to follow, Jess sighed and stepped onto the grass alongside Laura, neither wanting to be left behind.

"This is stupid," Craig muttered, stomping across the patch of grass for good measure, "I'm hungry,"

Riot shrugged to herself, having been at the back of the group all along, not having had much of a desire to be a part of the conversation. But as the others started to disappear from sight, she quickly followed, not wanting to be abandoned completely.

"Shouldn't we b-" the sentence faded over in a brief, high-pitched shriek, the others instantly turned on their heels to see what had happened.

But saw nothing but a patch of grass.

* * *

**THOD - **WASN'T THAT JUST LAME, YOU GUYS? Ah, well, how ya liking LOSeRS-Land so far? I promised you a freaking adventure, didn't I? I'm not quite sure if I like this, as usual, but I kinda-ish-like like it. So meeh. C:

Read&Review!


	11. As Long As The Wrong Feels Right

**THOD - **More notes.

Sorry if I got your hopes up, because no, it's not a new chapter. However, this story is going on a hiatus. Perhaps everlasting, perhaps not. If anyone wants to continue it, feel free, but let me know so I can read.

Mostly, this is because I'm all out of inspiration and have a lot going on now, along with the fact that I've completely lost interest about South Park. I'm working on rewriting LOSeR and this into a completely original story instead, really, and that takes up a lot of my time and will.

But, yeah, if you want to continue it while I'm temporarily abandoning it, feel free. Need any help with it? I'm all up for helping you beta it and be helpfulish, so just let me know. Otherwise... bye for now.

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 11_**_  
_**_As Long As The Wrong Feels Right  
_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners.

* * *

"It ate her!" Kate exclaimed loudly, eyes wide in disbelief, pointing accusingly at the grass and pulling Lloyd closer, "My fucking Jesus, it ate her!"

No one argued with her. At the moment, it truly was the most illogical, yet logical thing to think as Jess ran the flashlight over the walls and grass, not quite believing what was happening. But facts was; Riot was nowhere to be seen.

Gone.

Lost in space.

"W-where did she go?" Laura stuttered, eyes wide, "S-she was r-right there,"

"What the hell just happened?" Craig asked slowly, carefully, almost like he was worried the grass would jump up and try to devour them as well, "That's so not fucking normal,"

Jess briefly glanced into the darkness behind them quickly before turning, looking down at the grass again, "I ain't crossing that grass again. Who says we keep going down the creepy tunnel?"

Her only answer was a series of collective nods, all eyes trained on the innocent-looking patch of grass as they turned, silently hoping Riot was okay. But, as cruel as it sounded, no one of them was too keen on touching that grass again. Just like no one was too keen on running around blindly in hopes of possibly finding a paranoid, skinny wreck of a boy.

Sometimes, you just have to think about yourself first.

"I hope she's okay," Kate said quietly, looking unusually somber, "I-I feel horrible doing this, but I want to get out of here,"

"Do we have a choice?" Lloyd asked, frowning slightly as they ventured further into the dark tunnel, "Maybe we'll find something if we keep going,"

"We just did," Jess cut in, having stopped a few steps ahead, staring down at the slippery ground, "Seriously. Look at this,"

"Is that...?"

* * *

As the world went momentarily black, Riot couldn't help the startled shriek that forced itself up her throat before she hit the ground and got all air knocked straight out of her. Taking a moment to collect her mind, Riot sat up slightly, her surroundings foreign as she opened her eyes.

Tall, green trees stretched towards the sky all around her, the cheerful cries of birds echoing around her. The ground below her was soft and warm, like the grass she'd stepped on before abruptly being pulled away from the murky cave.

Still a bit baffled, Riot slowly sat up straighter, idly rubbing her head and glancing around, seeing nothing but the forest crowding around her. A thin, scrawny path slunk by not too far away, disappearing in between the trees and , presumably, leading somewhere. Everywhere she looked, things appeared to be completely normal.

Not counting the fact that she'd been trapped in an underground maze mere minutes ago, that is.

"Oh, man. Wish I knew what the hell this place is," Riot mumbled, brushing some dirt off her shirt and looking around again.

"I could help you with that!"

As the tiny, see-through person suddenly appeared in front of her, Riot's first reaction was to hit it. She launched a fist at the misty person, eyes widening as her fist went straight through it, the person grimacing and giving her an offended glare.

"Hey, that's not nice! I'm only trying to help!" It whined, pouting and flew closer, leaving a wisp of mist behind as it moved.

"W-what the hell are you?" Riot gave it a confused, slightly bewildered look, "What's going on?"

"I'm a fylgja!" It exclaimed happily, "I appear when a traveler wishes me here,"

"But... I didn't wish you here," Riot furrowed her eyebrows, not quite understanding what it was trying to say, "Fylgja?"

"But you did!" It was clearly excited as it floated further away, "You wished you knew what this place is. And the Gods answered your wish, sending me to you,"

"Wait, what?"

"Whenever someone wishes in these woods, the Gods hear," The see-through person whispered, a wide grin on it's plain face, "This is a forest of great power, you know,"

"... okay, you scare me," Riot said bluntly, "Can't you like... not be so ghost-like?"

The thing shrugged and disappeared with a light pop, a small fox standing by her in it's place. The fox tilted is head, almost appearing to give her a sly grin and jumping into her lap.

Riot blinked stupidly, staring down at the reddish fox, not quite sure what to do. The fox was an improvement from creepy, floating ghost-thing, but Riot couldn't really say she was used to handling foxes. They weren't exactly common pets, after all.

"Hang on, I thought the fylgja were a sign of death," Riot pointed out, giving the fox a look, "Does that mean I'm going to die or something?"

"Oh, no," The fox said, eyes twinkling playfully, "Not all fylgja are omens of death. I'm a lucky exception,"

"Right," Riot didn't quite believe it, "Why are you here again?"

"The Gods heard your wish," The fox lied down in her lap, looking up at her with clear, golden eyes, "Sent me to help. Now, this is the _Skog Of Hundrade Sjælar. _The valkyrie often go through here when bringing their chosen ones to Valhalla,"

"Hang on, you're here to help me, right?" Riot said, suddenly curious, "And you know what's going on?"

The fox gave her a slightly suspicious look, "Yes. You're right. Why?"

"Then... could you explain a few things to me?" Riot grinned and idly ran a hand over the fox's back, "Like how I got here? And why only me?"

"I'll explain what I'm allowed to explain," The fox nuzzled into her leg, "You see, the Gods are preparing for war. The old writings say that they're allowed to bring in one player each to fight for them. Which is where you and your friends come in,"

"Player?" Riot raised an eyebrow, "What the hell?"

"We call them players, us fylgja," The fox said as Riot kept stroking it's back, "And each player has their own way of entering. You enter through the grass, for the God whose player you are wanted you to come here safely. Thus, he appointed grass the task of bringing you here,"

"Uhm, okay? Then... do you know what happened to Nick?" Riot glanced around, "Is he here?"

"I do know what happened to him, but that, I cannot tell," the fox yawned, "And if it is of your concern, my name is Eslir,"

"Nice to meet you?" Riot asked awkwardly, "I'm Riot. But... can you tell more about this war?"

"Of course," Eslir glanced up at her, "You see, the jötunn Loki is up to no good. Now, he tries to bring forth Ragnarök before it's time. If such a thing were to occur, the writings' prophecies might not play out, leaving the world eternally wounded. However, the Gods are not allowed to directly interfere. They cannot go against what the writings say. And so, they each chose a fitting player to do their bidding,"

"Dude," Riot stopped petting the fox's back, "What the hell have you been smoking?"

"... excuse me?" Eslir gave her an annoyed look, "I'm quite serious. As your fylgja, I am obliged to speak truly to you. At least so I think. I don't intend to test that theory, actually,"

"My fylgja?" Riot echoed, "How does that work?"

"Each of us fylgja have a destined human. We simply roam the lands until it is our time to either follow our destined one or interfere and help,"

"And you're helping me?" she shifted and pulled the fox closer, resuming stroking it's fur, "Then, where is this place? Are we still in Norway?"

"No, this is Ásgarðr or Goðheimr, depending on what you've read. The world of the Æsir, my Gods. The Gods that brought you here,"

"You're joking, right? Asgard? That shouldn't be possible," Riot gave Eslir a part curious, part excited look, "Where's Valhalla?"

"Far out of your league right now," Eslir said blankly, "First, being a quite important player, you must learn more of what is going on. You shall venture with Skírnir to the Svartálfaheimr quite so soon. As the rest of your friends shall venture on quests of their own, this is where you will learn the most. The Gods have their fears and need you to help deliver a message to the Svartálfar. From there on, you will learn what you are meant to do,"

"What about you?" Riot asked quietly, glancing down the skinny path not too far away, "Where will you be?"

"I'll be with you. I'm your fylgja. And I'm sure you'll connect the pieces eventually. There's much more to your quest that I am telling, yes, yes," Eslir winked, "After all, you've already encountered the danger. He sees you, player, he sees you,"

* * *

I stared blankly at the girl in front of me as the words fell to the floor, my brain not completely functional after the insane amount of dumb things happening today. What hit me the hardest?

She looked exactly like I remembered her; skinny, short and sickly happy.

"Ees he always thees stupeed?" Sindri cut in rudely, walking over to tiny, wooden chair and taking a seat, "Or ees eet just now?"

"He's usually not this... blank," the girl sat down again, "Come on, Nickers. Sit,"

"What the hell are you doing here, Tues?" I blurted out dumbly, sitting down without thinking, "This is Norway. You're like... across the planet,"

"Dunno," Tues – also know as Tuesday – shrugged, "What about you?"

And a Tuesday was also know as my goddamned sister. I'm so fucking confused it's not even funny right now. Mostly because I know, for a fact, she was back home yesterday. And no, it wasn't because I wormed my way through the window, raided the fridge and drew random naked people all over her homework.

Of course it wasn't.

"Eets not Norway!" Sindri snapped, "Are you stupeed? You're both here because of the war,"

"War...?" I trailed off, tilting my head as my sister grinned, leaning over.

"There's this war going on," Tues whispered as Sindri rolled her eyes, clearly not bothering to pay attention to us, "They want to us to solve it," she grinned, "Like, awesome,"

I started to say something, but Tuesday expertly interrupted me, "Oh, and Nickers, this is my only chance to be tall. Ever. Don't screw it up,"

"Shut it, shortie," I tilted my head and sighed, not exactly to pleased with what I was hearing, "Uh... Sindri. Please forget that I'm a stupid human and explain what the fuck is going on?"

Sindri rolled her eyes again, leaning back and crossing her legs. And, you know, for a tiny, creepy, violent freak she's almost pretty. Knowing this disturbs me greatly.

I shall now go slam my head into a tree, thank you.

I really can't believe I just said that.

Ew.

"Can't," she said plainly, snapping me out of my thoughts, "Only your fylgja can tell. Or an elder. And I do not conseeder myself that old, humeen,"

"Right. So you're saying you can't say anything at all? Then how does Tues know?" I whined, crossing my arms and frowning, quickly forgetting about my minimalistic, silent crisis when it came to what the tiny freak looked like.

After all, we're not supposed to think about that now. There's like... a war. Much more important.

... but if she wasn't so short and creepy, I'd give it a shot.

"I talked to an elder," Tuesday shrugged, as if it was completely obvious, "Didn't you see the shiny poof? That was him leaving,"

"And I'm supposed to be related to you," I sighed, making a face and running a hand through my hair, "Fuck this. I want to go home,"


	12. Let's Play A Love Game

**THOD - **well, look, I'm back from the dead. Kind of. I'm set on actually continuing this now that I've got sparetime, thus, here is a new chapter I've had up my sleeve for a while. The next chapter is already in the making and will be done within too long.

It's been a while, I realize that. But, hey, I got a bad block, had to move and suddenly my life was fucked up. Though I fear I've lost my readers, I still want to finish this, for myself and because I don't want to quit. And hey, those that did read - you were awesome. I love ya'll. So, forget what I said about a hiatus for now and enjoy!

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_****Chapter 12  
Let's Play A Love Game_

_ **DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

The table was frighteningly silent as Höðr reached out towards the mighty spectacular board in front of them all, carefully grasping a piece and moving it, knowing where the piece in question was despite the unseeing eyes watching all and everyone.

"I see you move, Höðr," Tyr spoke, watching the blind God with a distinct taint of wariness, "Are you bringing in your player already?"

"Yes," Höðr replied quietly, a faint smile grazing his lips, "I believe it is time to up this game,"

"So do I," Heimdallr nodded and reached out to an entirely different board, grasping the piece and moving it over to the main-board, "We needn't wait much further, nor can we. Time must not be wasted. I hope the fylgja are on their way,"

"They are," Frigg said as she watched the board closely, not bothered at all by the heavy atmosphere.

They were all tense, knowing they needed to place their Players carefully, according to what needed to be done. Success was crucial, failure was not an option. The battle had to be won.

Or the world would, essentially, be destroyed.

Their work would be in vain.

"Tread carefully," Heimdallr warned as Tyr reached out to move his piece, "You deal with an unstable Player. You needn't damage him further, or he will not succeed,"

"Are you saying he will loose?"

"Rapidly moving him will definitively damage him psychologically. Do you want a scarred being fighting in your place?"

"I believe not," the hand removed itself, "Are the damned moving?"

"Always," Frigg ran a finger over the side of the board, "I advice you not to bet now, Tyr. Heimdallr is right. You have a fragile piece as he is now, do not test his limits,"

"Yet, he _needs _to learn what he is to do, soon if he are to properly prepare. Stalling will put him at a disadvantage," Tyr argued, fully aware of how much pressure there would be hanging on the boy's shoulders.

"Let him figure it out on his own. There was a reason he was chosen," Frigg said slowly, "You must simply trust him,"

With an irritated snort, Tyr leaned back in his chair and scowling down at the board, yet listened to what Frigg said, leaving the piece alone. At least, leaving it alone for now.

Eventually, he would have to move the piece. And then, he told himself, the boy would simply have to deal with it.

* * *

"Why didn't I just go for a more normal job? Why couldn't I just have... taken the damn job at Kiwi?" Riot mumbled as she followed Eslir through the oddly thick forest, pushing away branches and frequently glancing over her shoulder back at the more open, bright part of the forest.

Eslir had, very convincingly, said it was absolutely necessary to go through this part of the forest and Riot had listened. But now that the tiny fox slithered around the numerous trees and disappeared from view every two seconds, Riot found it had been a major mistake to listen to the dumb, annoying little thing.

Cute as it might be, it was still a see-through, ghost-like idiot that had poofed into a retarded fox.

But as the tree's got harder to maneuver around and the holes in the ground more random and lethal, making it much harder to follow the nasty little Eslir, the regrets of listening got steadily worse.

"Hurry, hurry! We must get to the _Skogstjarn _fast, before the Nøkk's arrive!" Eslir called over his shoulder, jumping up on a particularly high rock and waiting for Riot to catch up.

"Why can't we just go around?"

"... well, because I said so. Actually, I just find it rather hilarious to see you struggle," Eslir said as he watched her, curled up on top of the rock and giving her a particularly sheepish grin.

"I swear," Riot halted and glared at him as she changed directions towards the path, "I will kill you. And then kill you again. And that's a promise,"

Eslir rolled his eyes at the threat and swiftly jumped off the rock, landing on his paws and disappearing beneath a rubble of rocks before appearing on the path a few seconds later, "Then come on, you slow thing,"

"Shut the hell up, damn," Riot snapped and broke off a branch, pointing it at him as she finally reached the path, "I'll strangle you!"

"Put the stick down," Eslir said blankly, trying to hide a halfassed smirk, "And walk. We've got a few hours ahead of us,"

"Hours?" Riot muttered, throwing the small branch over her shoulder and sighing, "Really? You've got to be kidding,"

"You're right. It's just a few minutes," Eslir grinned and did a side-step before taking off.

Riot was left sulking after him, not too keen on being left alone in the middle of nowhere. The forest got thicker and darker as they walked, yet the sun shone through without much trouble. Soft, hard-packed dirt made up the slithering path, which kept changing directions at random. Yet, Eslir knew where to go.

And eventually, the forest came to an abrupt halt.

Eslir sat down on the edge and turned to face the awestruck Riot, a proud grin on his furry face as he raised a paw to scratch his ear.

"Now, what do you think?" he asked, nudging her shin to catch her attention.

"That's... shit, it's amazing!" she awed and briefly reached down to pet his head, yet never taking her eyes of the absolutely breathtaking sight before her.

"I know," Eslir laughed and threw her a teasing grin, "More amazing than you, at least,"

"Ye- hey! You rat!"

* * *

After a day of shiny, poofing elves and general stupidity, I admit myself absolutely exhausted. As Sindri reluctantly showed me their guestroom, essentially just another room with a pair of wooden beds with a shitload of poof on them, and told us to get some sleep, I more or less passed out within minutes.

On the load of unusually comfortable poof stuff. I have no clue what it's supposed to be or anything, but it's soft and comfy and sleep-able.

Nick approves.

And, y'know, after what seemed like three seconds, I was awake again. Awake, tired and even in a good mood. Which means something is definitively wrong.

The poof had partly unpoofed itself and sunk together during the night, which I noticed as I attempted to roll out of bed, expecting the floor to be as far away as it was that morning. And promptly landed on my face.

There's nothing like a piece of floor in the morning, after all.

Oh, ha ha. Irony.

With a sore forehead and a minor headache, I proceeded to take my annoyance out on Tues by lovingly kicking her out of bed and watch her smack her face against the floor as well.

"Hey! What the fuck?" The annoyed sister sat up from where she was squashed between the bed and the wall, glaring, "You fuck!"

"Indeed I do," I said nonchalantly, grinning at her anger, "Anything else you'd like to know?"

For a few moments, she just sat there, glaring at me. Before her face gradually turned to a mask of unimpressed, 'you're-so-dumb', which is quite so common in these moments.

Though, I sense revenge lurking around the corner.

Better watch out.

"... yeah, would love to know who," Tues said and crawled up onto the bed again, "Because your damn sexlife interests me to such a high level,"

I couldn't help but pull out the oddest story I could think of, and just as I was to retell it in great detail, the door opened and Sindri marched in.

Reaction?

To shut the hell up and frown.

"Glad to see you're aweeke," she said dryly, maxing out the dry-o-meter and knocking out dry bread and dust.

"Glad to see you're still alive," I muttered to myself, but instantly shrunk back at the threatening fist.

Clearly, Sindri is even less of a morning person than she is... well, a person in general. Or midget. Or whatever the fuck she is. Oh yeah, I'm badass. I just insulted a tiny freak in my mind. I must be awesome.

Just wish I had the guts to say that out loud, damn.

"We're goeeng to the blacksmeeth to feend you... eh, proper clotheeng and armour and to feex your horses' breedles," Sindri explained slowly, obviously still thinking me stupid.

"Armour?" Tuesday echoed, all half-annoyance from earlier thrown out the door, "And horses?"

"Deed you theenk you'd be walkeeng? You need to get around, do you not?" Sindri gave her a partly annoyed look, "Unless you'd leeke to tame a beerd and fly, horses are your only way,"

"... you've got to be kidding," I almost surprised myself by speaking, but really.

I don't do very well with animals. They're all big and creepy.

"Yes," Sindri's sadistic grin said it all, "Horses, humeen. Surely we can feend you a neece one,"

* * *

"Oh Jesus," Kate grimaced and ran a hand through her hair at the sight, sighing, "That's... blood, ain't it?"

"It's certainly not ketchup," Craig struggled slightly to seem unaffected, not exactly finding it very reassuring to find the ground covered in blood and two people missing.

"And t-that's... Nick's shirt. And b-boots," Laura pointed out quietly as Jess nudged the objects with her shoe, cringing.

"But no dumbshit," Kate sighed and knelt beside the pile of things, frowning, "Other than that... there's just water blocking the tunnel. I highly doubt he went through there,"

"Why not?"

"Nick can't swim," Kate uttered quietly and ran her hand across the surface of the water blocking the way.

"... maybe he got across. It's worth a shot, right? And I don't wanna go back over the grass," Lloyd said optimistically, cracking a meek grin, "Not like you have to swim... I think,"

"Are you seriously suggesting we crawl into the chicken-cold water and melt over to the other side?" Kate whined, giving him a very much disapproving look.

"Of course not. You just crawl back over that grass and hope you don't disappear," Lloyd gave her a just as disapproving look, "And chicken-cold? That makes no sense,"

"Yeah, well, neither does your face," Kate mumbled sourly to herself as she kept tracing patterns on the water's surface, seemingly thinking hard about the situation at hand.

"Don't be so snappy, Kate. Besides, maybe there's another way out of here," Craig said and looked around, seeing nothing but the pretty huge, odd wall-painting like thing on one side.

"... I don't see anything," Kate snapped and followed his line of sight, "Well, there's that huge wolf right there, but what the fuck does that have to do with anything?"

"... it's a wolf?"

"It's utterly obvious! I mean, c'mon, dude. Are you blind or something?" the already frustrated girl growled, "What the hell is wrong with people here?"

"Nothing is," a completely new voice spoke up, making the entire group turn abruptly towards the source of the voice.

Only to find a meek, confused-looking skunk sitting there and looking generally confused. Which only served to fit the mood, if one had to be honest.

A few moments passed in utter silence and there was a mass staring at this talking, almost cute skunk. Which, in itself, should truly be a crime. Skunks aren't meant to be cute, after all.

"And what in the world are you supposed to be?" Lloyd was the first to snap out of it an speak, giving the skunk a rather curious look.

"I am a fylgja," it said calmly, not letting the hostile, frustrated atmosphere unsettle it, "And I am here to help,"

"You're a skunk," Jess said blankly and took a step away from it without thinking, "How can you help?"

"I am not a skunk," the skunk stated, "It is merely the shape I have given myself. And I happen to know the way out of here... at least I know the way out of here for one of you,"

There was a moment of silence as the words sunk in and someone voiced the question hanging on the edge of everyone's minds, "W-what do you mean by that?"

"I can only show one of you the way out of here," it said and tilted it's head, looking them over, "The person I shall show out is already chosen, but do not worry. You will all get out of here, one way or another,"

The tension was obvious, the seconds of silence slithering through the walls and running down them like the water pooling up and blocking their way. One of them would get an easy way out.

The rest would have to figure shit out on their own.

* * *

**THOD - **So. Yeah, not very good, not very much, but... it's something. And I have my original plans, my original plot and all that. I fear my writing has changed a bit, but, it should be manageable. I think.

Please, do read and review. It does make me happy.


	13. Running From A Warzone

**THOD - **Yep, chapter 13. I'm so damn eager, I'm just spewing updates.

Not.

I've had this done for a few days, but I wanted to save it a bit in case I went out of inspiration again so I had something to go by. But, well, here goes.

Again, feedback is greatly appreciated. Both critics - constructive criticism, at least - and anything else is welcome. Oh, and yes, I am aware that I've done a few errors in the arts of grammar here and there due to not paying proper attention and rushing. I am aware of it and will get around to fix these random, partly annoying errors once I'm done with the story as a full.

And asgsyfgsohkhffff, I'm just so pumped, I couldn't wait until next week like I wanted to when it comes to posting this. Goddamnit. But, well, here is.

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 13  
Running From A Warzone_

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

Sindri did take us off on a trip, if you'd like to call it so. The cabin was left behind and we set off on a spectacular journey to see some weird-ass crap they called the _'__Svartálfar__ ',_ which sounded a bit too gloomy for my tastes.

Which, really, told me nothing. For all I knew, they could be freakin' fairies with huge poofy skirts and horrid glitter issues. But, from what Sindri kept saying, they were some sort of elf-like things and would equip us with armor, weapons and mounts.

So, I do admit that I have my doubts about my fairy theory.

Yet, I'm not particularly amused with my own witty thinking. For the last two hours, I've done some serious thinking after weeding out a few bits of info from Tuesday and sobered up a bit in terms of realizing just what's expected of us.

Ain't no small dumbfuck adventure, this, oh no.

I've been taking it all rather lightly after I got out of the cave, something that was quite stupid. This was the easy part of the journey, that much was obvious after talk of war, the Apocalypse and death came up from the information I got from Tuesday, which she in turn had gotten from an elder elf.

Sindri has been rather quiet, too, merely showing us the way through the forest and towards the deeper, darker parts of it without snark or biting comments. And I admit, as the sunshine finally left us, it dawned on me just how serious our situation is and just how large the consequences of failure might be.

It really doesn't feel real.

Even Tuesday seem quiet, looking a bit too thoughtful as she gazed at the dark, ominous trees surrounding the narrow path we were on. The forest had gone from warm, welcoming and straight-out-of-a-fuckin'-fairytale to this dark, harsh and cold labyrinth. The ground was covered in pine-needles, stabbing my still bare feet with each step and making each meter of progress even more uncomfortable.

The trees around us were so tightly packed you could barely see between them – even if you did, there was nothing but darkness to see. No animals, no sunshine, no nothing. It was a miracle we could even see eachother, the path and where we put our feet on the unforgiving, harsh ground.

It wasn't cool, nor was it in any way fun anymore.

It had so painfully quickly turned into reality, I swear, I could still feel the stinging pain after reality bitch-slapped me.

A silent howl tore through the nerve-wrecking silence around us, sounding a bit too close to comfort. I caught sight of Tuesday doing an involuntary jump, looking far too pale for normalcy and clearly feeling as on edge as I did. We were all tense, I recon, all somewhat skittish in this new territory. We were all about as far from our - because, yes, I _know_ I'm not the only one - comfort zones as possible when we wandered through that dark part of the forest.

"We are getteeng close," Sindri said quietly, a solemn edge to her usually sharp, mocking tone, "The howls. They are getting more frequent,"

It was true. We'd been hearing the howls more often, but they hadn't sounded so close before. Hadn't sounded so hostile. As if the first silent, far-away howl wasn't nerve-wrecking enough on it's own, the way it just didn't stop was killing my nerves slowly and surely.

Just what could make such a pained, horrible sound?

And why the fuck was it coming closer?

I couldn't help the strange panic I felt, the strange gratefulness that I was able to breathe, to live, to be living. I've woke up and found myself eternally grateful to be alive and breathing several times before, yes, but this time it felt different. It wasn't the feeling of being grateful I hadn't been beaten to death, it wasn't the feeling of being grateful I could still breathe without overwhelming pain.

I was just grateful for everything, because I knew - deep down - that it could be so very much worse.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Tuesday asked after a brief, tense silence.

Yet, she was a bit too quiet to be herself, clearly a bit unnerved by where we were if the rigid shoulders and clenched fists were of any significance. And I take it upon myself to believe it was.

I admit, I'm no better. I'm damn unnerved and I want to fucking go home myself, so I do understand.

"Depends. Are you afreed, humeen? Eet ees not far now. We should be there een a few meneetes," she drawled, an unreadable expression crossing her face as she led us towards what appeared to be another bloody cave entrance.

And clearly intending to take us down into more caves. Underground, too, if the way there was stairs so clearly leading down just inside of the gaping black hole was anything to go by. I swear, it looked so much like a mouth wanting to eat us, I could have died right there and then. Frightened as I was, I didn't feel like dealing with more panic attacks and sudden claustrophobia or being locked down underground again.

With the added fact that I hate caves. Specifically underground caves with entrances in huge rocks that seem to pop out of nowhere and mean to fuck up my life.

Because, last time, well, I trust you know what happen. After all, it wasn't that long ago and it's the reason I'm stuck in this position here. And yes, I am stressing about it because just the memory of it makes me want to run and hide.

"Well, down we go," Tuesday mumbled as Sindri led us through the opening and down into the depths of the earth, not giving me much time to dread it or think about it long enough to realize just how scared I was and run away.

I regret ever going on this stupid adventure, I tell you, I regret it.

Fuck having friends; all they do is get you killed around here.

* * *

"So, you're saying you can only take one of us?" Kate asked slowly, unnaturally tense and blank as her hands clutched at the fabric of her dark hoodie.

The skunk gave a slight nod and tilted it's head, eyes roaming over the worried and clearly distraught teens standing all around it. It was rather obvious it didn't like it much more than them, but it knew.

There just wasn't anything else it could do.

"A-and... who i-is it?" Laura asked meekly, daring to ask the question they all wanted to ask but none had the guts to, the nervous stutter very much clear in her hesitant words.

Even Craig looked honestly scared for once, obviously dreading to be left behind to try fend of the rising tension and discomfort that came with being locked down in caves far below the ground. Not only would the disappointment be huge and draw even more uncomfortable situations, but it was getting heavy just being down there. It was stressful, tense and far from interesting anymore.

Fuck the reason they came down; he wanted out.

"It'd be the Snotra's Player, that, child. _You_, more specifically,"

"M-me?"

"You," it confirmed, giving a curt nod with it's furry head and observing as a row of emotions rippled through the rest of the teens.

Kate looked scarily blank, void of any emotion but perhaps a twitch of fright and the clenched fists giving in to what was most likely unbound anger.

Craig looked desperately disappointed and almost afraid, every fiber of his being tense and screaming.

Jess looked angry, eyes locked onto the wet ground beneath their feet, thoughts swirling through her head at the speed of lightning.

Lloyd looked like a mix between all of that. With a twinge of what could be relief for his sister actually getting out of the caves that felt like a prison to them all.

"H-how... what...?" Laura seemed to trip over her words a bit, but the relief was obvious on her face as the skunk reached out one of it's little paws towards her.

Salvation was hers, no matter the slight selfishness laying in the thought of abandoning the others. Yet, as it had been stated before, survival was key. One had to fend for oneself sometimes.

A thought passed through the skunk, a moment of understanding as it knew just what it meant to the others, just what it was doing to them. It was stealing away the remorsefully large amount of hope it'd given them by reaching out towards her, but it had no choice in the matter. It's heart was kind, but it could only do so much.

It was her fylgja and not theirs, it couldn't do anything else no matter how much it might want to do so. It was just how things were – it was destined to go in, get Laura out and help _her_, not _them_.

And though it pained it to see their faces as she hesitantly reached down to touch it's paw, it allowed himself a gentle smile and swiftly jumped up to meet her hand halfway. It latched onto her and the second they touched, they both disappeared in a swift burst of light and a short shriek on Laura's part.

Leaving the remaining four teens in the utterly hopeless, complete darkness of the damp underground caves.

And Kate, unsurprisingly, broke fast. She was already on the verge of it and having the hope ripped away triggered something within her. It took less than three minutes before she shook her head, tried to choke a silent sob and stormed off towards the patch of grass and the other parts of the cave, so desperate to get out she was clearly not able to take much more. Screw being afraid of the patch of grass, she needed to just... _get away._

The sudden movement after the general numbness that hung around them snapped Jess back to Earth, the brunette instantly jogging after Kate to try and be comforting, though it was no feat to tell she was just as upset. But it was obvious none of the boys would be able to move anytime soon and Jess did care - leaving a friend to cry, sit around and suffer on their own wasn't cool. She knew she couldn't solve the problem, but being alone in anything didn't help anyone at all.

Clearly, they would have to endure more of the caves, though none were all too keen on doing so.

But they had no choice at the time.

It was just how it was.

* * *

"They're coming here?" Riot asked, her expression clearly stating her surprise and confusion, "And you're sure this is Nick?"

Skírnir, the messenger of Freyr and the man they had met up with on the outskirts of the forest they – by they meaning herself, as Eslir had cruised through the whole ordeal – had fought their way through, nodded once.

"Yes, quite so. The Players should arrive soon, if Sindri is on time," he spoke quietly, slowly and his voice held all the confidence in the world.

From what little he'd shared with Riot and Eslir, the Gods were slowly but surely preparing their players and getting into defense positions, while taking advantage of whatever time they had left to make sure their players were as ready as possible. They knew they'd get attacked, ambushed by the spawns from Hel, but no one knew when. No one knew how, either, but they anticipated an direct attack.

Perhaps they were wrong to expect a direct attack, an all out war-battle, but they did. It was, after all, the most likely thing to happen. Though Loki was a trickster, he was hiding out with Hel. And Hel did things directly, quickly and painfully.

And as they rested down in the underground world that belonged to the Svartálfar, listening to the heavy sound of their hammers beating down on metal as they created the most magnificent armor, weapons and things and whatnot in the unbearable heat, they exchanged a few more pieces and bits of information, leaving Riot to puzzle together the whole thing in her head.

It was rather confusing, yes, but it seemed to make sense.

Loki was up to no good and the other Gods had to stop him from wrecking the world. And somehow, they'd ended up being the ones that had to stop him, with the Gods helping, of course, while they weren't allowed to directly interfere. Alas, they had to save the motherfuckin' world.

"So, wh-" Riot was abruptly cut off as one of the Svartálfar ran into their small, secluded space and spat out a sentence of gibberish to Skírnir and whoever could understand it.

Riot, unfortunately, could not.

"He says the Players are here," Eslir said as Skírnir got up to follow the Svartálf, leaving the two of them to wait.

It was tempting to get up and follow, but Eslir shook his head as Riot made a move to do just that. Clearly, they were supposed to sit down and shut up. Which, when one thinks about it, might just be a good idea. No one knows just what might happen if they wandered off, got lost and pissed off a few Svartálfar.

Well, Riot wandered off, got lost and pissed off something. Eslir could, after all, communicate with the things and knew how to act around them. Riot did not.

And so, they waited.

* * *

"Thees ees Skírnir, the messenger of Freyr. He'll take care of you from here on, humeen," Sindri said pointedly and nodded towards the silent man standing off to her right, thankfully about average-sized and normal-looking.

Because, honestly, I'm so sick of small elves and all the tiny fucking shit around here. Fucking freakshow all of it - can't be too much to ask to see a person that reaches past my hips, yeah?

After going down for what seemed like ages – very frightening ages, thank you – we ended up in this place. It looks just like a damn huge, random hole in the ground and goes under the name of the Underground up among the irritating elves. And this is where we shall gain armor, horses and some other mofo shit.

I don't even know. Nor do I care – I just want to go home, just home. This whole ordeal sucks. It's tediously scary and I don't want no responsibility hanging on me, oh bloody hell no. I hate responsibility. There's a reason I drink, fuck and get high, after all. And it ain't because hangovers are fun or trying to kick an addiction is a fucked up, masochistic hobby of mine or some shit.

"Uhm, alright," Tuesday was the one to speak, offering Skírnir a hesitant and clearly unsure smile as he looked us over and nodded.

If he did notice the awkwardness, he obviously decided to ignore it, which served as some sort of relief. He didn't expect us to actually have a fucking clue about what goes on, he just expects us to be here. Maybe even say something clever once in a while, but I doubt it, really.

"Thank you, Sindri, I'll call upon you if we need you again," he said, his voice surprisingly quiet and soft as he dismissed the elf.

Sindri gave a nod and shot me a glare - perhaps a warning, that - but did leave, clearly listening quite a lot to this man.

I am forever grateful, creepy guy. That elf has been getting on my nerves.

And she's scary as fuck.

"If you'd be so kind and follow me, Players, we shall make sure you're ready to leave as soon as possible," he said, once again surprising me slightly with the general atmosphere he created when he spoke.

But before I could even think about it, I found myself following this strange person, my mind quite so confused whereas my feet clearly trusted him. It was just something about him that calmed one down, managed to make one relax.

Had to be the awkward voice, that.

He led us through the narrow streets between the small houses, random buildings and everything in between. More or less, it was an entire world in the cave. There was a huge market, mainly focusing on the whole blacksmith ordeal they had going on, and numerous houses and buildings scattered around everywhere and nowhere.

Literally. There were houses built into the walls and placed on top of seemingly randomly placed, very unstable pillars and rocks. Instead of evening out the terrain, they seemed to have found themselves a cave and just built shit everywhere.

But it was damn neat.

Skírnir seemed to know exactly where he was going as he led us into a plain, less crowded area and into a small forge near the edges of the cave, the ground sloping slightly as it was obvious we were standing on the point where the ground turned into wall in a gentle curve.

"I believe you've met the Player of Baldr before," he mused as he nodded towards an open space on our right just after leading us into a small house, where a familiar mop of bright red hair was sitting, facing away from us.

"Baldr...?" Tuesday echoed and tilted her head as I found myself unable to help a stupid grin from showing.

Familiar faces!

Familiar _hot _faces, damn!

It seemed our talking caught her attention, as the single person sitting on what I assumed to be a couch – or a stone with some pillows on – turned to look in our direction.

For a few seconds, the world froze as she met my eyes and obviously recognized me through the mass of bruises and cuts I'd gained. And the recognition in her eyes really did hit a nerve – a good one, too. The somewhat stunned face morphed into a smiling one as Riot got to her feet and headed towards us.

"Well, damn, look what the cat dragged in!" she said as she crossed the floor in a few swift steps, though, didn't get to say much more before I gave in to the temptation and pulled her into a hug.

I hadn't really known her long, no, but seeing a familiar face did so something to me. And even more so, she actually seemed happy that I hadn't just died somewhere. Feeling somewhat appreciated makes me happy. And when I'm particularly happy, like now, I hug people.

As this rarely happens, I don't hug a lot of people. But for today, exceptions shall indeed be made.

It didn't seem to bother her, though, as she laughed and merely returned the somewhat awkward hug, the height difference indeed making it a bit odd. But for once, I just felt like fucking awkward and just enjoying the fact that there was someone I knew, someone that seemed to care and was bloody hot around.

Because no matter how much I love my sister, sometimes, siblings just doesn't cut it completely. Tuesday didn't know what'd happened, either, didn't know why I was covered in bruises and cuts and was unnaturally off course after the whole cave thing. And explaining the whole thing is tiring, I just needed someone that knew. Fuck, I'd even take Craig right now in terms of having someone that _knew, _as that fact was majorly important to me for some reason.

Tuesday just didn't know and Riot did. It offered an odd sort of comfort I _really_ fucking needed and just can't seem to put proper words on.

Besides, our dad might think I have an incest relationship with Tuesday, but I don't. I'd rather not do my sister, thank you very much. Can't answer for what I do when high or drunk, but as there is little to no alcohol or weed around, I'm fully sober and incest is damn nasty.

End of that.

"I'm glad you're okay," Riot mumbled as I let her go, unable to help the slight smirk I was so proud of having from appearing on my most likely bruised face.

"Nothin' can make me not okay, yeah," I mused and dropped myself down on the 'couch' she'd been sitting on earlier, "Anyway, what happens now?"

"Now... we prepare," Skírnir said softly and motioned for the Svartálfar lingering nearby to get to work.

* * *

**THOD - **Good gracious, what a dumb chapter. But, ey, I kind of like that things are happeningish. And I've already got the next chapter ready and ready to be edited... when I can bother.

I swear, if I wasn't such an old, cranky hermit-crab, I'd get me a beta. Might wanna add that onto my wishlist for Christmas, yet, I know I'm too quirky to actually let anyone go into my not-yet-finished thoughts and edit them for me. Just doesn't work, man. I can take criticism - to some extent, I can only take so much negative before getting prissy - but I can't handle being beta'ed.

Maybe one day, by someone I really, really fucking trust, but eh, whatever. Nuff muddling on this.

Reading and reviewing makes me happy! I was overjoyed when I saw that, no, I haven't lost all my readers! I do hope to get some more reviews, though, as they really keep me going right now!

Over 'n out!


	14. Midnight On Their Altars

**THOD - **I have come to see that my chapters are getting longer and realized that no, I will never be able to keep this story at an equal length to LOSeR. LOSeR was around 50,000 words. This is already at... what, 30,000? 35,000? And I'm just getting started here, so, well, expect this to be a long, long ride.

And I'd like to shout out to MissMondayMourning - a most awesome person that actually reviews all the damn time and RandomGhostie for also reviewing after this damn long pause of mine. You're both awesome, yeah!

Though, stats betray that, yes, there are more people out there reading and I appreciate it. But I won't lie, reviews really boost my spirits and are the reason I'm updating so often lately - it just get's me so happy! And yes, it does make it more fun to write. But hey, the hell I'll beg for it.

But know that a review makes me happy and I do enjoy being happy. :D

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 14  
Midnight On Their Altars_

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

For a whole load of six hours, we sat there as the Svartálfar measured, forged and scuttled around to prepare armor for each and every one of the three of us. Handmade, customized and made only for us, even. It was almost a bit strange and somewhat nice to just get to sit back and relax while you knew that someone was working their ass off to make sure you were decently equipped and cared for.

The fact that it was decently equipped for war, however, did something to make it a bit less nice.

Yet, no one really cared there and then.

Instead, I made a show out of trying to introduce my sister to Riot while the world was still in it's good zone. Of course, done out of sheer boredom and I didn't actually do anything, as I am lazy, but it was, all in all, quite an interesting ordeal.

But it generally is when my sister is involved with... well, anything.

"Well, Riot, this is my sister Tuesday and vice versa, bla, bla, bla, introductions made," I mused as I halfheartedly waved one hand in Tuesday's direction, all the while taking a moment to truly chillax on the perfectly puffy pillows.

Effort made in terms of introducing my wonderful company to each other.

And on a completely different note, they seemed to have a lot of puffy poof around here.

"I see. Uh, nice meeting you, Tuesday...?" Riot said politely as she extended a hand, a pretty little smile in place.

Within seconds, she found herself in the eager, mischievous grip of the Tuesday.

Sometimes, it's a bit embarrassing to be related to that thing. But, then again, life would be painfully dull without her. And either way, it's probably a lot my fault she ended up like that. I'm just as bad – if not worse, yeah. I must admit, even, I've done a quite magnificent job of fucking up the mind of my beloved sibling.

Fuck yeah, I take credit for that madness right there.

"Wonderfully wonderful meeting you!" Tuesday beamed, clutching the other girl's hand in her own and slinging an arm around her shoulder.

I suppose that's one of my bad habits turned Tuesday's bad habit. Hah, told you, it is somewhat my fault.

"And how, per se, did you get to know my pothead of a brother?" she drawled as she tugged Riot over to the couch and placed her down for what could seem quite odd for someone unfamiliar with how Tuesday worked.

Riot, poor thing, looked slightly befuddled, as she was not completely familiar with how Tuesday worked. Yet, she looked a tad of amused through the whole thing, which I shall take as a good sign. She merely went along with it and let her eyes dart between the two of us, probably contemplating the similarities. I admit, there are quite a few. Though, we all know I'm better looking.

I'm a fuckin' _God _after all, ha-fucking-ha.

Please do note the sarcasm in that statement.

"Interesting story that," Riot answered after a few moments of silence, appearing to think before picking her words, "Found him standing around all depressed here the other day and boom. This happened,"

"I see," Tuesday nodded as if she knew exactly what Riot was talking about and obviously approved of the red-head's choice of words, "And has he tired to get you drunk, tried to get you in bed or done anything else that can be classified as offensive or downright impolite?"

"Uh..."

"Probably," Tuesday kept talking before an answer was even given, "I'm more than sure he has. Or at least thought about it,"

Riot laughed lightly and shook her head as Tuesday kept on talking, revealing more than anyone even wanted to hear, yet somehow managing to be interesting at the same time. Not that I cared, I'd heard it all before.

Hell, I was there.

So, I took a moment to actually, fuckin' honestly relax.

When I'd walked down into the water blocking the hallway back in the cave, all the pains of new and old injuries had disappeared. And now that I sat down and relaxed they were slowly returning, my shoulder once again whispering a few complains and nagging at me to include it in my musings again. It was coming gradually, slowly, each bruise slowly making itself known at a steady pace.

It was a huge relief just have been rid of it, so I'm not trying to complain, but I do wish it could have stayed away.

And for the whole of the next many hours, I merely enjoyed the comfortable level of little to no pain and added a comment or two into Tuesday and Riot's conversation. Tuesday, of course, launched into quite a few stories about the stupid things I've done and some of the stupid things she's done – and some stupid things we did together, of course, and generally kept talking.

There were a pause in which food was consumed in the whole thing, but eating fruit and talking at the same time ain't no big art if you're an Acqua. We do know multitasking quite so well.

It was around the time when Tuesday was starting to run out of things to say when one of the Svartálfar came in to us and motioned for us to follow with a rough little hand, as we didn't have much of a way of communicating with them. The elves above-ground could, to some degree, speak English. The elf-like things down here could very much not do so, only spewing line after line of some mofo gibberish.

Weird bitches.

The process of actually putting on the surprisingly odd-looking armor was tediously boring, thus, I shall gladly skip it. It generally consisted of taking the pretty much ruined cross-pants I was wearing off, getting new, plain clothes and getting a few pieces of what looked like completely normal leather covering a few vital areas, like lungs and those pieces of shit.

Y'know, the stuff you need to live.

It was rather tricky putting on, actually, but it looked funky. I felt somewhat like a fucking ninja of some sort. Just... not so black and not ninja-like at all.

... just shut up and go with it.

Shoes and the likes were also in the mix, along with gear for the horses we had yet to receive and the most interesting thing of all; the weapons. I admit, that part wasn't tedious nor boring.

It was bloody amazing, really.

Swords in general have always been overdone and boring, so I didn't expect much. But the lithe, thin blade that was presented to me did catch my attention in the strangest ways. It wasn't decorated or overdone, merely a few runes lining one side of the dark blade, yet they were nearly invisible unless one knew to look for them. And fuck the whole crap of it being overdone, it was a bloody sword.

Could be very useful if I needed to stab someone, that.

All in all, I accepted it without a moment's hesitation, as there wasn't any other options either way. But something about it just spoke to me – I just freaking wanted that damned blade. And I got it.

For a brief moment, I felt complete.

* * *

"I can't do this anymore..." the brunette mumbled, knees drawn to her chest as she sat leaned against the cool wall of the damp cave.

Kate wasn't in a good place at that time. Desperation was tearing at her and already being in less than good shape, she could only take so much. Clearly, that limit was crossed. She hadn't actually been in a particularly good place after the events that took place during their Freshman year, but had finally reached the point of starting to get better.

And then, plunged straight back into the dark parts of her mind she'd slowly worked herself out of.

"C'mon, it'll be fine," Jess mumbled as she sat somewhat awkwardly beside her, trying to calm her own thoughts as she attempted to be a bit helpful.

But it wasn't easy trying to help a person with the mindset of Kate, it wasn't possible to do much more than attempt.

"I want to go home," Kate shook her head softly and hid her face in her knees again, ignoring the shivers running down her spine from the cold around them.

The words echoed off the hostile, damp walls and trickled down along with the water running from small cracks in the roof. The darkness was everywhere, coating the teens in it's scarily gentle blanket and slowly suffocating them at their place far beneath the world. Time had no meaning anymore – they couldn't really pinpoint how long they'd been down there, nor did they care. They had watches, but time was just not important anymore.

Nothing was particularly important anymore, not after everything that had happened.

Hunger was slowly making itself known among the group, along with a rather bad case of thirst. It wasn't just a stupid adventure anymore, it was a bloody danger to them all. A possibly lethal mistake brewed by curiosity and stupidity.

"I know," Jess said quietly, "We all do. But you heard what the skunk said – we'll all get out of here,"

"How can you be so sure?" Kate asked shakily and threw a desperate look in the other girl's general direction, no matter that she couldn't see it.

"I'm not," she replied after a few moments of silence, "I just hope,"

* * *

"Where are they...?" Frankie mumbled as she glanced down on her watch briefly before turning back to the conversation at hand.

Essentially, after everyone had been missing for almost eight hours, people admitted themselves worried. And the conversation was currently on whenever or not they should tell what was going on to their psychotic teachers or go up themselves to see if they could find their currently missing friends.

"We should go up and check," Kyle argued for the umpteenth time, "And if they aren't there, we'll tell. It's not _that _complicated!"

"Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd get into?" Stan sneered back, fueling their already out of hand argument, "They'll send us all home!"

"And they won't if they _die _up there?"

And while they fought tirelessly over this matter, Kenny and Frankie tried to come to a solution on their own while Jude was getting high in a corner and Robyn was watching the whole thing bemusedly. The rest of their class was off in a corner – Token, Clyde and the annoying girls and all of those pretty little people.

"They could just have gotten lost," Kenny said coolly and threw a somewhat anxious glance out the open door, watching the darkness slowly eating up the landscape outside.

"Or maybe..." Frankie hesitated, the words harder to speak than originally thought, "Maybe they actually found something,"

Kenny snorted.

"Bullshit,"

"Well, think about it," she said quietly, "Why would they be gone for so long if they didn't find anything at all? The cave entrance is sealed off and the whole shebang, so they couldn't even have gotten down there unless they found _something,_ right?"

"You're being dumb," Kenny said bluntly, "There are no such thing as Norse Gods or bringing back dead people. If there were... well, the world would be in chaos,"

"Yet, you keep coming back from the dead," Frankie cut in dryly, giving him a _'or-did-you-forget?' _look.

After all, she did have a point there.

"It's not the same," he argued mildly, the frustration obvious in his voice, yet he kept it down, "I'm a fucked up case. Everyone else ain't,"

"And what's to say this one case can't be as fucked up as you, yeah? C'mon, Ken, we've lived in South Park long enough to realize that just about anything is possible,"

"... I s'pose," he muttered, a tad sour on having to give in to that one.

Fucked was pretty much South Park's middle name.

South Fucked Park.

"So, say, why shouldn't this be possible?" she asked, tilting her head slightly and leaning back in the soft couch.

"Because it just... sound so..." he trailed off, struggling to find the right word.

With an amused smile, Frankie easily gave it to him, "Strange?"

"... well, yeah,"

"Exactly," she drawled, "So, say, we go up and look. Maybe we'll find what they found or we find them still there. Wat'cha say, Kenny-boy?"

"Fine, fine, but if they ain't there, I call this whole fad bullshit again," he said and gave her a look, clearly not wanting to argue on that matter.

"Alright, deal,"

* * *

The Gods watched the board in a thoughtful silence, everyone debating their own next move. The atmosphere was tense, everyone considering the outcomes of possible moves in their heads as silence raged, only broken by the lone call of a bird from outside.

Until an unexpected visitor barged into the room, breathless and looking nothing short of unsettled.

As one, they looked up to the visitor, all taking in the disgruntled appearance of the woman, save for the unseeing eyes of Höðr.

After a moment of silence, Frigg took it upon herself to speak, her voice soft as she addressed the near-distressed woman.

"Sigyn," she said, giving her a brief nod as a greeting, "Why have you come here?"

If the atmosphere had been tense earlier, it was nothing compared to the sparks flying through the air at the sight of Loki's wife standing there. She was thought of as the enemy, after all, but something about her general appearance and the look in her eyes managed to halt the attacks that wanted to fall upon her.

"I beg your pardon for this, as I know I am someone you do not wish to see here, but I have come to plead your help," she said hurriedly, every part of her betraying her nervousness.

Clearly, Loki had little to no part of her being there, or she would not be so frightened. A decent actress she might be, but to feign the look currently in her eyes was something even the most experienced actress would have quite the hard time with.

Thus, a silent agreement to at least hear her out rippled through the seated Gods, though, hands hovered near their individual weapons.

"And why is it you have come, then, Sigyn?" Frigg once again took it upon herself to speak, speaking softly and easing some of the woman's anxiousness.

"I... simply cannot tolerate what my... Loki," she avoided using the word husband, somewhat too repulsed by what was going on to want to be his wife at the time, "What Loki is doing. And I came to offer my help – I can offer the help of my Player. Loki made me choose a Player close to yours in hopes of misleading, but I am afraid I cannot go with him now,"

Her words held an edge of truth and though the Gods did not fully trust her, they knew about it. It was a problem they had already tried to come up with a solution to several times and for a solution to present itself so easily was something unexpected. Far from unwanted, but unexpected. It had already caused them quite a bit of grief and if she spoke true, not hoaxing them into something, they would have a far easier time advancing their Players on the board.

"You must understand, Sigyn," Odin was the one to speak now, his voice easily carrying across the entire room and ringing clear, no matter the quite large distance between himself – whom was sitting on the complete opposite side of the room – and her, "That we have our doubts about your trustworthiness. We have no way of knowing if you speak the truth or not,"

"I understand that. All I ask is you give me a chance, allow me to show that I only want to help. For once, Loki has crossed the line and I ran, came here without his knowing. I risk so much, at least grace me with a mere chance to prove my intentions. Because, I promise," she met Odin's dark eyes, honest determination showing through, "I have no other intentions than helping,"

Silence rung through the room once again after that, the high ceiling of the great hall they were in somehow appearing nearer than earlier as another sharp spark of tension slithered through the minds of the Gods, everyone pondering about the words having been said.

They were risking quite a lot either way and, frankly, this was a problem they needed to solve.

For several minutes, no one spoke, everyone thinking the same, yet no one actually speaking. They knew that whoever spoke would have the full responsibility on them, would have to take the shame if it was all trickery.

"Then do have a seat, dear Sigyn, and show us that you mean no harm," a warm voice spoke, everyone turning to face the speaker.

A moment of surprise, a moment of doubt. Yet, as it came from Forseti, calm settled within long.

Forseti was a good judge and was wiser than one thought – and the Gods knew. They trusted his judgment. If he felt it was right to let her stay, no one was to argue.

With a somewhat relieved smile, Sigyn accepted a free seat offered to her by Tyr and felt the brief calm sweep over her as well. She as well knew that Forseti, if anyone, was someone who saw straight through a lie in nearly all cases and had called out on the truth she knew she held, for once, had called out on the honest good intentions she came with. She knew that as long as he trusted her enough to let her sit, the others would accept it.

Would give her the chance she wanted, the chance she'd hoped to get. Because, no, she wasn't lying. She wasn't up to no good. Yet, it was war at the time. And in war, suspicion was what kept you alive.

Being given the privilege of doubt was an honor she took to heart and promised herself she would not abuse.

Because now she acted for herself, for once, not for the man she once called husband.

* * *

**THOD - **Yeah. I... uh, don't even know. I feel this is a load of bullfailure, but whatever. On a good note, I am still writing, but have been caught up in drawing. I sketched up what Nick's new clothes look like, what Riot's new clothes kind of look like and is working on Tuesday's new clothes. Everyone else will, eventually, join.

Lol.

Anyway, read and review and all that junk and a new chapter will be up... one fuckin' day. Love ya'll!


	15. You Are Not A King

**THOD - **Well, here we go again. Evened out on my posting now, so... no update floods, haha.

And... wow, I ain't got shit to say today.

Lol.

* * *

_**LOSeRS**_

_Chapter 15  
You Are Not A King _

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

"We have to keep moving," Craig said silently as he knelt in front of Kate, Lloyd and Jess on either side of the rather distressed girl.

After the small fit of tears, he'd taken it upon himself to gain some sort of control of the situation and try and urge them to move on, as it was obvious no one else was going to do it. Sitting around in the cold wouldn't do much good – they'd get cold, more hungry, more irritable and just fuck it all up.

Essentially, they had to keep moving, and if no one else was going to make sure they lived, he'd just have to do it himself. And Kate, at the moment, was the only person too out of it not to be able to go on. Alas, they had to somehow snap her out of it and collect whatever pieces of her mind that cracked apart and scattered after Laura disappeared.

If only so they could get the hell out of there without having to feel guilty about leaving her behind to die in their own desperation to get out.

"I-I can't..." she mumbled, "I can't do this anymore... God, I was so stupid. I should never have gone down here,"

"Look," Jess started, "We didn't go down here in vain. Obviously, there is something in this whole... other worlds thing. There's something going on,"

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed, a gentle smile painting itself onto his face, "You were right, weren't you? And if we didn't go down here, sure, none of this would have happened. But think about it. This is pretty amazing – in it's own twisted, odd way,"

"And since this is clearly real, Hedge gotta be around somewhere," Craig finished their little speech quietly, "So there is something we can do about this shit. It ain't just fucked, but we gotta keep moving and find that door to the other worlds,"

"How...? We're fucking lost, Craig, we're stuck down here. We ain't got shit clue where we are, where to go or even if we have the right damn key to the right damn door. So, _how?" _Kate snapped, blinking away the tears wanting to fall as she finally raised her head to look him straight in the eyes.

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" he mused and slowly stood up, extending a hand, "So... stop moping. We got stuff to do,"

Kate eyed the hand suspiciously for a few moments, but through the clear despair written on her face, a light smile grew.

With a shaky breath, she reached out and accepted the hand.

* * *

It took a few moments before I was actually feeling brave enough to even try climbing up on the monster of a horse I was supposed to call mine for... the rest of our time here, really. The creature in itself was magnificent, I gotta say, but too fucking scary. It was clearly not a particularly friendly thing nor was it particularly happy to see me.

The gelding was about as high as I was and a dapple gray, ears flat back and glaring at everything it – _he_, I soon found out – could see. Not a particularly friendly one, no, as he promptly slammed a hoof into one of the Svartálfar as he was being saddled.

And this they thought I would be able to control.

I merely watched in a horrible sort of fascination as he easily whacked out a few more Svartálfar, yet, eventually had to give in to the fact that he was stuck under the plain saddle, armor and bridle that would, hopefully, let me have some semblance of control while I was stuck on his back. They'd apologized for him being less armored than the other horses, even, but had reasoned that it was plain impossible to get it better without risking their own lives.

And when it all came down too it, they didn't care enough to risk their own lives to put armor on the sour thing.

I suppose I can see the reason, yeah.

A tired, grumpy Svartálf tugged the furious creature out towards where I was waiting, struggling to control the raging animal as he reared, kicked and pretty much screamed at whatever came too close.

But for some reason, when the Svartálf and the horse came closer, I wasn't quite as anxious as I'd like. Staring the horse straight in the eye made a thought strike down in me and to some degree, calmed me down just a bit.

Whereas I had always been holding back on my anger, this horse clearly wasn't. Really, I suppose I can understand why he's angry. I'm pretty pissed myself, being forced into the whole painful mess we're in without anyone listening to what I feel about it.

Man, if I could actually take on these people and weren't a piece of shit emotional wreck, I'd totally be acting like that as well.

"Take de bloody 'orse!" the Svartálf sneered as they neared, shoving the reins into my hands as quickly as the short thing could and scurrying away.

I was left facing the furious-looking horse, staring straight into a pair of black, distrusting eyes.

I swear, he was looking straight into my soul and trying to burn everything he saw there as I stood by, anticipating something horrible to happen. Surely, as he'd been kicking and fighting all along, he wouldn't make an exception with me.

He didn't.

After standing still for a few seconds, he reared again, aiming at me with those bloody scary hooves.

So I let go.

With a loud thud, the horse's front hooves hit the ground again and it paused, giving me a calculating look, apparently not having expected _that_. People had been fighting him all along, using nothing but force, it was pretty obvious he'd expected more from me.

But honestly, what else could I do? I know shit about horses, there's no way I can control a huge, pissed off one. Let the stupid thing run off, let it do whatever the fuck it want. I'm being forced into this whole thing, and honestly, I don't want to force someone else into it.

If he doesn't want to, then piss the fuck off.

I made no move to pick up the reins again, the horse merely watching me suspiciously for a while, making me feel a bit inferior under those searching eyes. That thing right there – it's smart. You could just feel it.

He knows exactly what's going on.

I crossed my arms and glanced over my shoulder, more interested in seeing how Tuesday and Riot were doing with their dumbass animals at the moment. And, of course, they were much better off than me.

_Typical. _

Tuesday was running her hand along the neck of a dark brown, lithe horse and looked perfectly comfortable with the large animal standing so close to her. The horse looked calm enough, almost looking to enjoy the whole bloody ordeal, already saddled and acting like the perfect little douchebag of a horse.

And Riot was already on the back of a near-white, tall and proud-looking horse, looking like she'd done nothing but fucking sit on the monster all her life.

Clearly, I was the only one with actual trouble.

I sighed and turned back to my own hellspawn of a horse, giving him a displeased look with he mirrored easily.

Neither of us liked it.

But, judging from the fact that he now stood still in front of me, I'd guess we've both decided that it was an acceptable agreement to just exist and get this over with.

With a frown, I snatched the reins quickly, the horse snorting and his ears once again flat against his neck. But, surprisingly enough, he stood still as I threw them over his head and moved to his side, meaning to get the hell up on his back.

He still didn't move.

Taking this as a good sign, I moved as quickly as I could and shoved my foot into the stirrup and hoisted myself up before he could change his mind and go bananza on me.

I managed to get my foot into the other stirrup and grasp the reins before he – I shall name him something _fun_ one day, but not now – decided that we were to leave.

And promptly set off in a slow, unexpected canter. I swear, my heart imploded as I nearly lost my balance and grabbed onto the nearest thing to stay on the back of that idiot of an animal. My fingers gripped his mane tightly as I glanced over my shoulder, to my surprise finding Riot, Tuesday and Skírnir following us with ease.

They did look somewhat amused at my lack of control, but, hey, what can I say.

Must have looked funny.

And so, we set off on a most spectacularly long and painful journey.

* * *

"How far up is this shit?" Kenny muttered as he lunked behind their group of nervous, curious and tired teens. There were surprisingly many of them there, everyone from Kyle to Token had showed up to join their little late-night stroll through the dark forests or been forced by someone else.

Though, why Red had joined, no one really knew.

But whenever asked, she merely said she was curious and avoided looking anyone straight in the eye.

Essentially, it was a strange night. The trees seemed to watch them as they got closer and closer to the spot Kyle said they were heading for. They had been up there before, on the tour, but really, who remembered which direction they went or bothered memorizing the path?

No one but Kyle.

The lot trudged up the steep hills, Token at the front with Clyde and Jude, while everyone else merely made up a mush of chattering people. Chills was starting to creep up from the earth, bringing with it a tone of worry as the sky was slowly darkening under an oncoming onslaught of pitch-black clouds.

As the light grew dim around them, a spark of tension ignited and spread though them like wildfire. Everything was a bit worrisome and strange, nothing quite sitting right.

Mere moments later, everyone came to an abrupt halt as the three at the front stopped dead in their tracks.

"Guys," Clyde interrupted an oncoming flow of cries and complains about the sudden halt, "I think we're here,"

In front of them stood a pair of abandoned motocrosses and, just peeking up among the trees was a small staircase leading into the darkness of the forest.

But not a living person in sight.

"So," Kyle started, looking around and awkwardly reaching up to adjust his ushanka, "Now what?"

"They ain't here," Frankie mumbled and crossed her arms, giving the abandoned motocrosses an unreadable look.

"Duh," Kenny sighed, "I 'spose we go back and give up on their sorry asses?"

"Can't we go down?" Red spoke up for the first time, shifting slightly as everyone turned to look at her, "Just to look?"

"I ain't going down there," Kyle had yet to change his opinion on the matter, "But feel free. I'll wait here while whoever feels like it goes down to look at nothing,"

"Alright," Jude drawled, already making her ways down the stairs as she took a lazy drag of the somewhat questionable cigarette in her mouth, "Then I would come with the most bodacious idea of moving our asses, _oui?_"

"... she's high,"

* * *

It was silent. Not a single sound penetrated the dark air around her as she slowly reached out and moved one of the chess-pieces on the cracked board in front of her.

"Clever girl," the old man opposite her drawled, offering a wide grin that showed a few missing teeth and a half-chewed piece of lettuce.

"Move, old fool," the teen snapped, yet her voice held no malice as she leaned back against the large rock behind her.

All around them, the other inhabitants of the realm of the dead went on with their 'lives'. They went about just like they had when they were still alive, from the aspects of working to going to bed whenever fatigue caught up with them instead of working at specific times or following any sort of schedules.

And old Áki reached out a withered, wrinkled hand and moved one of the greyish pieces that went as white, still wearing his less than flattering smile.

That was their life. The two would sit there, play round after round and eventually, when one was tired, they's split up and go off to do other things for a few days. Sleep, work, be useful or maybe even social, if the mood called for it. Though the real of the dead held no concept of time or routines, it was all strangely repetitive.

The teen merely watched stoically, a typically cold and careless expression as good as welded onto her face. Though, one could not actually see her face from the shadows cast by her hood, yet everyone knew – it just hung in the air.

"Clever," the teen echoed, a small smirk painting itself onto her lips, "But not clever enough. Check mate,"

"... _very _clever girl," old Áki mused as he watched the board and scratched the top of his head with a scarred hand, "Hmm, you're learning. Another round, _ja?" _

"Sure, old fool," the teen chuckled and slowly started re-setting the pieces to their default starting places, "Two horseshoes on you biting the dust,"

"Psshh! Cocky clever little girl! Prepare to loose them horseshoes!"

* * *

**THOD - **I have to say, I'm somewhat disappointed in myself. But eh, whatever, I shall soon start rooting out my own issues and perhaps up my own writing standards. Now, though, off to be nervous. Got prom on Friday - social life, here I come!

... ugh.

Please do read and review! It's all appreciateeeed! :D


	16. Dazed And Abused

**THOD -** Yap. Still updating. But, well, updates will be slower and all. They'll still come, but, sheesh. Yeah. There's so much to write in this story I get overwhelmed and I'm feeling a bit off, since it seems there's not enough canon in it and it irks me. I'm considering rewriting it completely and making at an entirely original story instead.

But, well... not now, lololol.

Anyway, here goes. Another lame chapter.

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 16  
Dazed And Abused_

_ **DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

"Where are we headed, anyway?" Tuesday asked as we entered the third day of our dull, annoying journey. It was just warm enough out to be a bother and not even the mildest of breezes could be felt anywhere. Packed in under all out armor and clothes, it was a miracle no one got a heat-stroke.

There were seven of us – me, Riot and Tuesday obviously – along with some awkward little fox Riot had told us to be some fylgja creature named Eslir. If one looked at the basics, it was a creepy, talking fox and nothing more. Hell, the nasty little bugger spent most it's time sitting on the back of Riot's horse, staring at me and trying to psyche me out.

'twas working, too.

Along with us were a man whom had introduced himself as Vég to be our 'guide', Skírnir and a weapon's specialist apparently there to give us some basic tips on 'killing the enemy without stabbing yourself with your weapons'. And after our first three 'sessions' with him, it was quickly showing that such was needed, as I'd almost cut off my foot, Tuesday had almost managed to poke out Riot's eye and Riot had done surprisingly well, in matters of only almost getting stabbed in the eye by Tuesday.

When it all came down to it, we were a pretty depressing sight.

In terms of me getting along with 'my' horse, things weren't really getting anywhere. He wouldn't try to kill me on most occasions and would generally go in the direction I wanted, though, took every chance to throw me off, be an ass or accidentally knock me over into rivers. I'd gained an impressive amount of bruises from these escapades of his and had come to only one conclusion; the bloody horse is an asshole.

Riot got along just fine with her horse, Tuesday seemed to be about best friends with her and everyone else had little to no trouble, never getting pushed into rivers or stepped on as they slept.

_Typical_ shit.

"We're headed to a place known as the _Hemmeliga Passagé_, or in matter of using your language, the 'Hidden Pass'. We should be able to get through and get to the other side of _Ísfjället_ much quicker that way. If the pass is sealed, we'll have to go around and spend another three days traveling before reaching _De Daude's Sjö,_" Vég said dully, glancing over his shoulder in the general direction of where we came from.

"Another _three _days?" I whined and tugged lightly at the gray mane of the dumbfuck of a horse I was on, "That's murder, man,"

"Oh, shut it, Nickers," Tuesday said lightly and waved a hand in my direction, a smirk planted on her face, "It ain't that complicated. Just sit down and shut up,"

"Says you. You got a nice horse," I muttered sourly, glaring over at them and merely envying how her stupid horse did every bloody thing she wanted.

She just had to look in a direction and the horse would dance over there so prettily, ears forward and happy as fuck.

I looked in a direction and the horse would take that as 'dumbfuck is distracted' and make a sudden jump, throwing me off.

"Or maybe you're a dick," she shot back, "Besides, have you named it yet?"

Yesterday, Tuesday decided we had to come up with perfect names for these stupid creatures. I still do find this whole ordeal ridiculous, but after enduring several hours of nagging on the subject, giving in seemed like the best option. If just to get my goddamn sister to shut her yap long enough for me to think a full sentence without being interrupted.

Gotta blame myself, though, as I can recall constantly using the 'nag until everyone gives in' technique on our parents when we were kids.

All the motherfucking time.

Wow, yeah, and it came back to bite me in the ass.

Fuck me, man, fuck me.

And so, these little monster animals had gotten _names. _Tuesday had ended up demanding to know what 'chocolate' was in Norwegian-speak and made herself a nice little mashup of that with what I assumed to be some other language. Or, which is very plausible, she just found a word that sounded similar to the one she'd gotten from our guide.

That is the extraordinary story of how Sjóko was named Sjóko. Though, somehow, it always managed to sound incredibly French whenever someone besides the people that were actually from here said it.

Strange, that.

Right after Tuesday had loudly declared what she had named the horse, she had been informed that the horses already were named.

Of course she insisted on keeping the name she'd picked out and wouldn't even listen to what it's name actually was. Curiously enough, it's name actually was kind of similar to the pile of awkward letters Tuesday had picked out for it. As if life wasn't creepily awkward enough already, Tuesday just _had _to go off and get pseudo-psychic, too.

Well, when you're an Acqua...

But, our family's most amazingly awesome and perfect genes aren't the point of the story. You see, mere moments after this discussion had come to a momentary halt and Tuesday had just pulled out the topic of awkward things she could imagine certain people doing - her main victims of this were Kenny and Kyle, as she could so clearly see them doing so many strange things- to entertain herself, a loud, shrill scream tore through the air.

The horses danced on their various spots, all turning towards the source of the sky as _it_ became visible on the horizon, a chorus of these angry shrieks following _it_.

The three of us had no idea what those things were, but even we figured they weren't happy nor friendly. Black, flying things were rapidly turning the sky pitch black as they flooded in over us, there being so many of them the sun literally disappeared behind them and coated the lands in darkness. The monster of a horse under me did a few uneasy steps to the side, tossing his head up and obviously considering bolting.

Skírnir saved us the trouble of thinking, instantly kicking his horse into a gallop and speeding off in what appeared to be a random direction.

His words hung behind as he disappeared into the nearby forest, worry so painfully clear it made my stomach clench with uneasiness.

"_Run!"_

None of us hesitated, though, as the mortified look that crossed Vég's face became visible to us. He'd gone ghastly pale and was starting with nothing short of horror at these creatures painting the sky black.

So I followed Skírnir's example and gave the monster beneath me a solid kick, the animal complying without hesitation and setting off in the general direction I tried to point him in. Riot and Tuesday seemed to snap out of their shock at this and was hot on my trail, the three of us racing through the slowly thinning forest and out onto the vast, open plains.

The ground flew past us, the grass blending together into a solid green as we all bolted away from those horrid things. Their shrieks got louder as they slowly caught up with us, sweeping down and getting dangerously close to doing some serious harm. I didn't even try to control the beast beneath me, only holding onto his mane tightly and hoping he could run faster than they could fly.

And he proved himself fast as he was soon ahead of both Tuesday, Riot and Skírnir, who'd been far ahead of us when we started our panicked run. Everyone ran for themselves, maneuvering around trees and rocks to their best ability and heading in any direction that seemed safe. And, though I probably should have, I didn't look back to see if the others were alright.

I just kept an eye on those monsters coming closer and closer, making sure we were ahead of them.

We weren't.

Just above my head, the awkward shape of half-human, half-bird something loomed and gave a venomous shriek as it's claws reached out towards the horse beneath me. I didn't even think as I yanked out the sword I'd gotten earlier and made a pass at it, the thing swiftly drawing back and hissing angrily, but was unharmed as I certainly wasn't good enough with a sword to hit anything at all really.

I didn't even get the chance to turn my head to see the other bird-thing on my other side before I felt it's claws digging into my shoulders, yanking me straight off the horse and into the air, the sword slipping from my fingers and sailing towards the earth. It hurt – more than I could ever remember having felt, but it didn't matter as it rose into the air, carrying me with it.

My head didn't even register it letting go of me.

Nor did it register hitting the ground.

* * *

It was a moment of confusion for Kyle, as he'd been leaning against a tree one second and found himself rolling across a bare field the next, chaos all around him. The sky was pitch black, the sound of terrified horses screaming mixing in with another monstrous shriek repeatedly echoing through the air. He didn't even manage to sit up before the force of something heavy crashing into him sent him tumbling into another heap, everything spinning beyond belief as he tried to collect his wits and figure out what in the world was going on.

Everything was moving too fast - and he was, for once, too slow to catch up.

He groaned and tried to see what had crashed into him, raising a confused eyebrow as he caught sight of a bloodied, battered form that greatly resembled someone he knew quite well. On closer inspection, he saw that it was, indeed, the crumbled form of none other than one of their missing classmates – the reason they'd been up in the forest in the first place.

Pushing poor Nick of himself, he couched and glanced around, seeing the confusion everywhere. His own clothes was already stained by the blood from the rather large, worrying wounds covering Nick's shoulders and Kyle, no matter how clever he might be, had no idea what to do.

A few moments later, a muffled moan came from the battered form in front of him and Nick opened his eyes, confusion and pain so obvious Kyle had to wonder what the hell was going on once again.

"Shit," the elder teen muttered and pushed himself up a bit, teeth gritting against the pain, "What the fuck..."

"Dude, what the hell is going on?"

The sound of Kyle's voice seemed to snap him out of it and he threw the redhead a confused glance, "Kyle? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I don't know!" he snapped and glanced up at the sky, the entire layer of black somethings seeming to get lower and lower, sinking towards them.

"Shit, we need to get out of here," Nick hissed and managed to push himself up to his knees, already out of breath from the entire situation and the obvious pain.

"How?"

A solution soon presented itself to both of them, as a large, dapple gray horse raced up to them, ears flat against it's neck and looking downright furious. It halted a few inches away from them, throwing it's head up and neighing impatiently, about as keen as them to get out of there.

Nick gave a tired grin and struggled himself up to his feet, confusing Kyle as to why there was a horse there and why that appeared to make Nick cheerful. But, seeing it as a solution, Kyle was quick to fallow to the other to getting up, being there and staying near the taller boy as he looked about to fall over. Getting up seemed enough of a problem in itself, but no words needed to be said as Kyle managed to drag them both over to the horse. It wasn't Kyle's preferred solution, but he was even less happy about staying where he was than getting up on the back of what looked to be a downright insane horse.

"Get up. And do it quick," Nick said and leaned against the horse's shoulder, the horse stilling it's uneasy moves as the tall boy leaned heavily against him.

Kyle not needing to be told twice before rather clumsily getting onto the back of the horse, ignoring the awkward feeling of sitting atop something harboring that much power and strength. He could practically feel the muscles trembling with the need to run beneath him and it was, to put it mildly, a bit unnerving and reassuring at the same time.

Nick, of course, needed a hand in getting up, but somehow, the two of them managed to get onto the back of the horse with Nick clinging to the reins and Kyle having ended up on the back, holding onto whatever he could find as the horse made a sharp turn and set off in a gallop before either of them were ready for it. The sudden movement and rush of speed put them both off balance, but as Kyle had the stirrups for support and Nick somehow seemed comfortable where he was, neither of them had to face falling off and being left being - for so much was sure, you fell off, you stayed off.

It was pure luck that none of them ended up on the ground in the hurried race towards a chain of mountains barely visible in the distance, a patch of monster-free sky visible and igniting a spark of hope in the both, the clouds and the blue sky never having looked so friendly and heartwarming ever before. Even to Kyle, whom had just fallen into the mess, it was a pure relief and as he rather awkwardly hung the back of the leather armor that had probably saved Nick's spine from breaking, he made the silent promise to himself to always appreciate any future sunny, monster-free days.

Because, hopefully, the skies would be just as monster-free when they got there.

* * *

Riot didn't know what to do.

Eslir ran beside as they raced towards the mountains, barely ahead of the few creatures flying down and making a swipe at them, narrowly missing as the horse smoothly avoided the attacks with effortless jumps back and forth, like a speeding car changing lanes on the highway. She considered pulling out the weapon she'd gotten, but the dagger wasn't meant for long-distance attacks and she didn't want to throw it.

So she held on and hoped for the best. They flew across the ground, heading towards a few mountain-tops barely visible. She could spot Nick quite a bit ahead, making a fruitless attempt at hitting back at the creatures and, from what she could see, failing miserably.

But she couldn't help the meek gasp as one of them literally yanked him off the horse and flew off into the mass of things, the stallion running along on it's own for a few paces before making a brutal, quick halt and turning on a coin, looking around frantically for it's rider, despite the two of them arguing and not exactly getting along.

A moment later, she caught sight of his sword embedded in the ground and, as they were just about to pass, leaned down without thinking and grasped the handle, yanking it out of the ground and continuing by. Eslir threw her an irritated look from the ground beside them, but she ignored it and threw the now alone gray stallion rearing to beat off one of the flying creatures a torn look, silently wondering if there was something she could do.

In a few heartbeats, she was past the whole scene and couldn't see any more of that, yet didn't want to risk turning back right there and then. Eslir urged her to keep running, her mind screamed at her to continue and find a safe place and her mare was clearly agreeing with the notion of continuing.

She almost turned around, but Eslir urged her not to – it would be okay.

The Gods wouldn't let them die just yet.

* * *

**THOD - **Lolfml. I'm slow in updating, but I'm getting there. I'm actually working on this - even doing some art to it, but I'm still a bit hesitant as I do wonder if it'd just be better if I turned this into a fully original fic. But, well, we'll see.

Read&review, it makes me happy. :D


	17. North To South - Empty

**THOD **- So. I bet you hoped this had just died off, huh? Well, sorry to disappoint. I fully intend to finish this, if just for me. Because I'm a selfish asshole in every way. Of course, once again, I've changed a bit. I don't write quite the way I once did, I don't do it all like I once did.

But fuck that, I still like this story and I'm going to finish it. Reviews are appreciated, totally, but I can understand if people have lost interest. I know I would have. xD

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 17  
North To South - Empty_

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

"Could you please explain what the fuck is going on?" Kyle asked from the back of the monster of a horse, horse in mention having carried us at a full sprint for what seemed like ages and now, climbing a small path towards a barely visible cave a bit up on the mountainside.

And Kyle seemed it fit to open his fucking huge mouth and nag.

"Shut up," I hissed through gritted teeth as I glanced down at the currently six-foot drop on our right, hoping the horse didn't lose it's footing before we reached the cave.

I'd no clue how we were to find Tuesday, Riot or any of the others, but we needed to find cover for the night. The monsters were still covering most of the sky further away, but above us was clear sky and they'd stayed where they first was. They almost seemed to be circling the grounds, searching – I couldn't see if there even was anything to be circling and when it all came down to it, I didn't want to see anything at all.

And as the horse climbed the side of the mountain and the creatures got farther and farther away, I could finally feel my heart calming down and the irritating wounds on my shoulders shrieking for some attention they probably wouldn't be getting. My head was spinning – happens a lot, it seems, my head getting bashed against shit – and things were just a tad tilted.

Kyle, to make things better, wouldn't shut up.

"Where the hell are we? And why the fuck are you dressed like... I don't know. Some weirdo?"

I'd never been on the friendliest terms with Kyle, through and through. Insults were surprisingly frequent, from the both of us, and we'd always had a general tendency to keep a few inches away from friendly. Socially acceptable behavior was somewhat normal, but in situations with stress or irritation, there was little teamwork.

"We're in another fucking world and I'm dressed like this because I don't want to die," I growled and glanced up at the slowly nearing cave just a bit off, the small plateau and cave seemed to be made just for this.

I was just waiting for Kyle to come with a snappy, logical response as we slowly climbed up the slithering path and neared the temporary shelter. But, oddly enough, it never came. Clearly, even Kyle had some issues with denying everything going on.

It was a huge relief when the darned beast finally stepped onto the more even, flat surface of the platform sticking out of the mountainside and halting, shaking his head and snorting as if it wanted us to get the fuck off. Kyle couldn't seem to get off quickly enough, but I didn't feel the pressing urge I'd felt so far to get off.

Things had sort of changed, I suppose.

But, I slid off and cringed as I hit the ground and made my shoulders shriek their complaints. The poor animals was covered in sweat and looked mighty displeased with everything, so I made it a priority to do something nice for the beast, for once. Kyle was just sort of standing there awkwardly as I went to take off the cinch and undo the straps keeping the armor in place, before sliding the saddle off, no matter how painful it might be.

As the horses were already equipped with bit-less bridles, I just unhooked the reins and the last pieces of the armor before dumping it just inside the cave and quite rightly collapsing beside it. The horse was watching me with some sort of quiet fascination and Kyle...

… well, he just looked baffled and confused beyond all.

"So," I started and leaned back against the saddle, using it as a make-shift pillow of sorts, "How ya doin'?"

Kyle gave me an odd look and moved over, taking a seat a few feet away and looking at me thoughtfully. Clearly, his dumb little head had more than enough to think about. The horse shook his head and looked rather pleased with the lack of tack, taking a few steps around and throwing his head, apparently just enjoying himself.

Instead of walking off, though, he walked over and into the cave, which was just barely big enough to fit him, and laid down in a corner. I'd have thought him to run off or something, but apparently, that wasn't on his agenda, despite him being a horrible monster with nothing but evil in his head, I'm sure.

"I... I guess I'm fine," Kyle said and glanced over at the monster-horse, "What's going on? This is insane,"

"This is pretty insane, yeah," I mumbled and cringed as my shoulder protested, "I'm not sure what's going on myself. One minute, I was trapped down in the caves with the others and the next, I'm in this huge forest with all these elves running around. I was pretty sure I died somewhere in there, but apparently, I didn't,"

I wasn't sure what to tell him myself, because I didn't know. I had no clue what was going on and, frankly, I had no idea how to explain the little I did know either way. It was all fucked.

Fucked, fucked, fucked.

"So, you mean the cave was actually real?" Kyle asked and gave me a skeptical look, somehow reminding me of other people I'd known once upon a time.

Like, say, my bitch of a mother and that did nothing to brighten my mood.

"Yeah, _Kyle_, it was real shit," I hissed and gave him the most irritated look I could muster through the dull pain lacing my shoulders and the general fatigue making me feel less obliged to listen to his besserwisser-bullshit.

Or his bullshit in general. When it came to me and Kyle, we clashed – completely. I brought out all the bad parts of Kyle, without any doubt.

Just like he brought out all the bad, horrid parts of me without fail. I was a shitty person in general, yeah. But I was never as bad around others as I was around Kyle.

"You've got to be kidding me! This isn't logical, _Nicholas, _it's just not possible!" Kyle exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air and shooting me a look.

Clearly, this wasn't how he'd wanted to spend his day. And I had to admit, I could see why. This whole thing was stressful as hell and even though I'd only been around for a little while, I felt years older. For poor Kyle, the only person in our year that practically breathed logic, this had to be hellish. Nothing made sense and logic wasn't useful at the least here, it would seem. Kyle, poor thing, was now more or less helpless.

Pardon me for finding that a bit pleasing.

"Well, _Kyle,_ tough luck. You're stuck here now, just like I am. And just like everyone else down here is. There ain't no goddamn easy solution to this, so shut your fucking mouth for once. Your _logic _won't be making this any less real!" I spat, the evil monster of a horse lifting his head and giving an annoyed snort at our argument.

Kyle, hilariously enough, actually jumped at the sudden noise from the creature of doom that had just saved our lives. I will admit, I wouldn't even begin to imagine how I'd look if that monster hadn't stopped and turned back. Considering how unfriendly we'd been all along, I'd have expected him to just run along and be happy he was finally rid of me.

Apparently, he found me more pleasing than other things. I take this as a good sign.

Because honestly, I'd rather sit here with just him than Kyle. So I guess the feeling is mutual.

Which just reminds me I still sort of have to name it, since I never caught the little demon's actual name.

"This doesn't make any sense. Are you saying this other worlds bullshit is real?" Kyle asked, sounding a tad more calm as he gave the horse a suspicious look.

I couldn't help it as I rolled my eyes at that one and threw my arms to each side, ignoring the downright horrid pain it gave my shoulders, "Look around! You tell me, man. You tell me,"

For once, Kyle had no comeback.

* * *

Kenny would admit himself getting nervous when they headed back up from the stairs, as they'd found absolutely nothing there. It wasn't the dead end that made him nervous, no.

It was the distinct lack of Kyle.

He knew for a fact that Kyle wouldn't just run off, Kyle didn't do those sort of things. Kyle didn't really have a sense of humor, either, so it was easy to rule out that it was just a prank or something. Because that just made no sense at all. And if it was one thing that Kyle did, it was make sense.

"Okay, this is getting freaky," Stan stated blankly, grinding his teeth together as he stared accusingly at the two abandoned motocrosses by the trees.

That was exactly where Kyle had made himself comfortable, where he'd been souring over the whole thing and being logical, like always. So logical it seemed like it was going out of fashion, which, all things considered, it seemed might be the truth. Things weren't logical anymore, because people were disappearing like it was nobody's business.

Even for South Park people, that was a bit odd.

They were used to a lot of things, but it was crossing the line, even for them.

"Dude, what the hell do we do?" Frankie asked and raked a hand through her hair, letting her eyes run over the surroundings as she tried to use Kyle's beloved logic and find a solution.

It was a bit odd, really. When things really weren't logical, everyone instantly sought comfort in it. When things were normal, calm and logic was present, no one gave a shit about it. But when logic finally left, everyone was desperately clawing at it like it was the last cool thing on planet Earth.

"I think this is getting a bit out of control right now," Token started slowly, somehow managing to maintain a bit of calm, "We need some help here. We've got far too many missing people right now,"

The small group exchanged looks, thoughts were passed along and mirrored in other people. Everyone thought, wondered what was going on. And eventually, a soft sigh rang through the entire group and a few calls of agreement was heard.

They couldn't handle it on their own anymore. It was just one of those times when they had to call in everyone and solve it, one of those times when being pissed at each other for small grudges and petty fights wouldn't do. And the next stop in calling in everyone to solve it was, unfortunately, Paul and Marko.

No matter how pissed those crazy bitches would be.

* * *

As she hadn't been concerned with the issue at all, Wendy Testaburger wasn't expecting anything at all when she found herself in a completely different place. One moment, she'd been sitting in her room with Bebe and all it took was a simple sneeze and she was elsewhere.

It was quite a place, she'd admit. A rather beautiful clearing, surrounded by thin trees and an old well placed in the middle of the scrawny trees. The sun was shining, far too bright really, and the silence was deafening. And Wendy would admit herself properly confused.

On unsteady legs, she stood, the dry leaves crunching under her palms. She wasn't even sure why she'd been sitting, but she had a feeling that just staying there wouldn't do anyone any good. The high heels she'd been loving for so long sunk into the ground and Wendy grimaced, glancing down at the soft ground before shaking her head and approaching the well.

Heels might be pretty, but she'd admit it was nothing but bother at times. Being a bit taller didn't help anyone when the ground just swallowed those extra inches anyway. Like there and then, making Wendy regret not taking another pair of shoes. She'd planned on just lounging around a bit and relaxing with Bebe, not walking around outside.

Once she reached the well, she couldn't help but grasp the mossy stones and lean over the edge, glancing down into the darkness and spotting her own reflection down there. The water was still and unnaturally clear, not a single leaf or speck of dust down there. Which was almost scary. But somehow, Wendy found herself drawn to the still water.

The mossy stones weren't cold or clammy, the small patches of moss strangely comforting as she clutched the stones tighter and shook her head. Things were odd, that much was for sure.

"What in the world..." she murmured and looked up, surveying the trees around her as she tried to wrap her head around it, "Where am I?"

Not having a real clue of what the others had been up to, the talk of the other worlds and disappearances, she found herself even more lost than they'd been. Which was saying something, as no one had really handled the whole 'poof another world' thing that well yet, even with a brief suspicion in their minds.

But Wendy was a big girl and panic wasn't even approaching her. She'd lived in South Park for years and knew to handle herself, odd situation or not. Squaring her shoulders, she offered the silence a frown and slowly started walking around the well, looking for anything of use as she found herself painfully thirsty the longer the sun beat down on her and her mind raced.

So when the small bucket and rope revealed itself on the other side of the well, who was she to ignore it?

* * *

**THOD - **Latest chapter ever! But, well, I still plan on finish this, like I said. And now inspiration struck after a long, long block. So here I am again, hah!

read&review, people. It makes the blocks go away.


	18. Holy Fool

**THOD - **No, I can't believe it either. Things are actually happening. And what's this? I _didn't _just stop after one measly update? Damn right I didn't! Hell, I even got another chapter up.

Anyway, I have to thank the wonderful MissMondayMourning for reviewing and making me so psyched to continue this. Hence, I actually post another chapter way too quickly and that makes me stupid, because now I don't have much backup for my next block. Then again, fuck that.

I _am_ stupid. I started this whole monster-project, of course I'm silly.

Anyway, off to LOSeRS-Land with us!

* * *

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 18  
Holy Fool_

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

Somehow, Laura wasn't quite sure what to think as the entire world shifted around her. One moment she was trapped like some sort of animal, unable to escape the damp walls and darkness slithering through those dreadful corridors. The next she was on top of a mountain, watching the clouds drifting past. They were the purest of white, she found, and it was a most welcome sight after having spent so long underground.

"Welcome to _Ísfjället, _Player," the small skunk said quietly from her feet, the tiny brunette instantly looking down and blinking owlishly.

It was a sight, yes, but Laura would have to wonder why in the world she was stuck on top of a mountain before anything else. And judging from the clouds being further down, hiding the ground completely from view, she'd put a coin on being pretty damn far up. Oddly enough, it felt just like walking around on ground level. The air didn't feel thinner, the air wasn't colder. It just _was_. Everything just existed, just like it'd do down on the ground.

"What is this place?" she breathed and raised her eyes again, glancing out over the sea of pure white and taking a step forth.

The clouds covered quite a lot, but far off in the distance, Laura could see green forests and fields. But even so, Laura found it a bit odd. So colorful, so vibrant. Everything just looked fake and strange, she'd say. But of course, everything was a bit odd lately, she'd say. As if the whole mess she'd gotten into wasn't weird enough, she was also talking to a skunk on top of a mountain. So when it all came together, she supposed she should just be happy if she got out of it with her sanity intact, even if she was doubting it already.

"This is where you begin your journey," the skunk said coolly as the brunette furrowed her eyebrows, not quite up to believing a skunk right off the bad – specially not when it sounded pretty far out.

When she thought about it, that kind of far out shit usually came from Jude's mouth when she was high. Even though what Jude said tended to make more sense, it had a tendency to be a bit cryptic and far-out as well.

"And that means?" Laura prodded and carefully sat down on the ground, not quite comfortable with looking down on peop- _skunks_ when talking to them.

Had she not just gone through what she had, she'd have scolded herself for just thinking something so absurd.

One did not talk to _skunks_ on a normal day.

"Snotra wanted you safely away from the battle," the skunk said and pointed to a specific point in the distance as a brief, black figure tore through the clouds.

The second another followed, Laura found herself shooting to her feet, watching the whole thing with a horrid fascination. More of those black things tore through the clouds from seemingly nowhere, engulfing the fields and turning the skies black where one could previously see ground. The creatures ate the heavens, it seemed like, the clouds nearby vanishing quicker than what should be possible as the creatures spread out like a dark, ominous blanket.

To say Laura was shocked would be an understatement.

Everywhere around her, the clouds vanished and the ground beneath was hidden by something far less natural than clouds. Somehow, she longed for just a rainy day. Clouds just suddenly seemed to nice, no matter if they brought storms with them. For she could hear their cries, those hellish shrieks even from where she was, so far away. And that was worse than any storm. She could only imagine why they were there, what they were.

What was unlucky enough to be trapped beneath them.

"What is that?" she asked quietly, turning a distressed face to the skunk, "What's going on?!"

"That, Player, is the first attack from the others. You're not quite ready to face such yet, but you're here to learn. We're here to teach you your part in all of this," it said and offered an almost sad sigh, stuck with the heavy burden of knowledge.

It'd have loved to share everything, to just say it all. But it couldn't. Things had to come together on it's own. It couldn't reveal a thing. Steeling itself, the fylgja launched into a short explanation of what was going on and Laura listened, eyes wide as she tried to piece it all together in her head.

Because it was surely a story to be remembered.

* * *

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Kyle's annoying voice drilled through my head once again as he tried to sort the situation with himself, "We're in another world of some sort. Acting as some sort of fucked up, living chessboard pieces. So we can stop some sort of war. If we fail, we more or less unleash the apocalypse on the world. Am I the only one thinking this sounds a bit fucked up, even for us South Park people?"

Irritably rubbing my temples, I shot Kyle what I hoped was a positively venomous look. I'd already told him, about a billion fuckin' times, that this was fucked beyond belief and nothing made sense.

But noo.

He just had to keep fucking repeating it and nag on it.

Even the horse was starting to look properly fed up, looking at Kyle the way it'd looked at me when he first met. For Kyle, that probably wasn't a good sign. Then again, he didn't even seem to notice, far too caught up in his idiotic musings about all things that were as clear as crystal.

Fuckin' Jewish asshole. There – I said it. I'm a racist asshole now, just like that fat motherfucker Cartman.

But damn it all to hell. I didn't even care at the moment. Besides, I never claimed to be a saint.

Don't believe in no _God _either, so I'd probably make a bad saint. And I'm a bad shot.

"Kyle..." I hissed and glanced out through the mouth of the cave, seeing those creatures still circling the grounds and searching for who knew what.

If someone was left there, I pity them. Because those creatures were clearly out for blood.

"This is insane!"

"I fucking heard you the first time!" I snapped and threw him another glare, the redhead falling silent but definitively doing what he could to send me an even more hostile glare back.

Frankly, I could care less. I'd been having a bad day, if you'd like to put it that way. Kyle's prissy self wasn't about to make it worse. That just wasn't possible, really. Not after everything that'd happened so far.

I turned my face back to watch the skies as Kyle offered a sigh, apparently slowly coming to terms with the whole thing, despite his precious logic working against him.

"How the hell did this happen?" Kyle murmured from his corner as I gritted my teeth and pushed myself up, knowing I couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

We needed water, food. Proper shelter. And we needed to move the fuck along, in case those creatures figured they'd search the area and found us. Then we were screwed.

"We have to keep moving, though. We can't just stay here. I have absolutely no idea where we're going, but we can't stay here. We're way too close to those things," I muttered and went outside, hoping to see some sort of miracle instead of the things I knew I'd see.

Sadly enough, while I do create miracles, miracles do not happen around me. There was still nothing but solid stone around us, no streams and no food. Even though I do believe there was a bunch of mushrooms a bit down the mountain, but... fucking hell. Going up had been hellish, I sure as fuck wasn't going back down and heading towards those things again.

I'd just gotten away and after having had those nasty claws buried in my shoulders, I wasn't about to go any nearer than I had to. The distance right now wasn't nearly enough, but it would have to do until we got even further away.

"And where are you planning on going?" Kyle asked as he walked up beside me, looking rather bemused with the whole thing, "Back there? Up the mountain? Doesn't seem safe either way,"

Shooting him another dark look, I offered a sigh and looked around. The path we'd followed to come up there did cross over this small platform we'd landed ourself on and further up the side of the mountain, but it got even slimmer and more unstable – I could see that much from where I stood. I was pretty sure it was only worse further up.

But there weren't that many choices left. No matter how this might look, we – _I –_ still had a shitload of responsibility I didn't even want on my shoulders. I was a fuckin' _Player_ and would just have to suck it up and play the game. That was what I was, right?

A pawn. A piece in the game.

A game that absolutely had to be won. There were no plausible failures, because it risked everything I loved and everything there was. If I fucked up, the whole world was doomed.

"Yeah," I finally concluded, "Up the mountain,"

"... you really are insane,"

* * *

"I'm _sick _of this shit, alright?!" Kate yelled and slammed her fist into the unyielding wall beside her, the despair and distress having turned into pure fury a few turns ago.

It was rather amazing, Craig would admit, how she'd swap moods so quickly. He wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not, but he'd take what he had. Better to have an angry Kate than a depressed one, he reckoned, and took a step towards the furious brunette.

"That's why we're trying to get out of here," he said coolly, ignoring his own nerves ticking away with each second passing.

Someone had to remain calm. Why in the world it had to be him?

He didn't know.

But no one else stepped up to the role, so he didn't see any other solution. If just to make sure Kate remained somewhat sane, which had become something of his job over the last year, he'd do it. After all, one couldn't help but get a bit attached to someone after spending countless nights just sitting up and talking. Or listening, if one wanted to be completely correct.

Because he didn't say shit. He just listened.

"Yeah, we can't just sit around here and be pissed off, Kate," Jess said, a mild frown marring her face, "We have to keep moving,"

"I know! I'm just so fucking sick of it!" Kate hissed and took a breath, clearly trying to calm herself down and failing rather badly.

But she was furious. Her emotions had been pretty unstable lately, as they'd gotten quite the punch to the gut after Helene died. She'd just been generally unstable and all the stress was really getting to her, frail as she was. She might put up a brave front, deal with things sort of well enough, but she wasn't quite as strong as she wanted herself to believe.

When everything came together, she was just a scared little teen.

Taking another deep breath, Kate nodded and let her eyes rest on the damp floor, not looking at any of the others. It might be dark, but she could sort of see the outlines of her friends. And she didn't quite want to look at them, if she had to be honest. She'd been too close and too much around them during the last few hours and she was, indeed, growing a bit sick of them. Then again, that could just be her anger flaring up again for no reason, seeking out reasons for her to be pissed off and annoyed.

"Let's go, then," Lloyd said quietly, looking far more tired than he probably should.

If Kate hadn't refused to acknowledge it, she'd have noticed the fact that her outbursts was tearing apart even the one in their group that didn't even really know her. She'd have noticed the way he seemed to slouch a bit, the dull look in his eyes as he looked down the corridor, not too fond of the thoughts it brought either.

The whole situation wore them out just as much as it wore her out, she was just too selfish to see it.

* * *

**THOD - **So, badabing, badaboom. Enjoy another chapter, full of angst and despair and shit. Y'know, the usual. And yes, if anyone have watched Boondock Saints - that was a shitty reference up there.

If you haven't watched it... well, I'd suggest you do. It's an awesome movie. HinthintwinkwinkBOOM.

Anyway, read&review and shit. I don't even know anymore. I've forgotten how to do this whole bullshit right here.


	19. This Is It, The Apocalypse

**_LOSeRS_**

_Chapter 19  
This Is It, The Apocalypse_

_**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own South Park or the songs mentioned in this story. OC's/locations/other belongs to their respective owners._

* * *

"And you did _what?_" asked a dangerously calm Paul, watching the group of anxious and restless teens in front of her with what could only be described as a glare from hell itself.

They'd debated, back and forth, what to do. They needed help, obviously so. People were vanishing. Just after they'd gotten back, they'd been ambushed by a hysterical Bebe Stevens and her little group of girls. Wendy, little queen-bee Wendy, had vanished into thin air.

After having lost so many, having had Kyle poof away and then Wendy disappear, they decided to go with the original, albeit dreaded plan and asking Paul and Marko for help.

So far, it was going rather well. Marko was standing scarily still, watching them all with a disturbingly blank look as Paul had her arms crossed over her chest with a glare from Satan himself in her eyes. But, well, they'd expected worse. To make matters worse, they'd also heard rumors flying about – strange noises in the forest, the weather acting odd.

The little goth kids often sitting around and playing chess under the trees had been smoking thrice as much as usual, the two blondes that was always laughing so loudly had been silent. The horses was constantly anxious, dancing around and throwing their heads. The dogs were howling and from the forest, they'd heard the wolves answering. Small signs that didn't really mean nothing then, but it made a lot more sense at the moment.

_Anticipation_ wassuffocating them all from every angle.

One person in particular had been watching them all closely since they arrived, a rather steely look on the face of their silent observer. Kenny could vaguely remember the girl being named Charlie – she'd been on the tour with them, he'd said. And now she was watching them like a hawk, seemingly knowing more than she should and stalking around.

What they didn't know was that she _knew. _The furry little squirrel hopping along after her was more than just a squirrel, just like Eslir was more than just a fox. And she waited for her chance to enter the games, which apparently was through them, Stigr - her fylgja - had said.

And if that was how it was, then that was how it was. Charlie White did most certainly not approach that crowd without thinking twice, though, after everything she'd heard from that ratty little squirrel. While they would be her way into it, she didn't want that much to do with them. Because, according to Stigr, they would be an utter chaos.

"We sort of went up there to check the place out," Token was the brave one to speak, managing to seem almost calm despite the nervous twitch of his lip and the way he kept twisting a loose thread that hadn't been there before it all started on his shirt around his finger.

Token had been pondering about that loose thread for a while, really. Maybe his shirt was trying to comfort him by giving him something to take out his anxiousness on.

Everyone else just sort of stood behind him as he spoke, shame-faced or nervous or uncomfortable in general. They didn't find loose threads to be calming enough and wasn't about to speak up at the moment. Certain things could frighten anyone, even them South Park kids, and an enraged Paul was definitively one of those things.

Because, apparently, Paul was the one with the temper.

"You went up there. On your own. To look for the idiots you allowed to go up there and explore. Is that correct?" Paul hissed and bared her teeth, a snarl playing on her lips.

Never before had they seen Paul that angry. If they'd all have to be honest, they didn't want to see it again. That temper was better off staying hidden.

"... yeah,"

"I will fucking _slaughter_ all of you," the dark-haired woman snarled and threw her hands into the air, turning on her heel and heading towards the main building, "Marko! Go find the keys to the car and the C4!"

Marko, after throwing them all a strangely disappointed look, turned and jogged after her partner in crime, not a word escaping her lips. Didn't need to, either. That look had told them everything and guilty looks were exchanged between everyone from Stan to Jude as they realized they had fucked up. Majorly. Getting stuck with the mafia was one thing, getting stuck with the _supernatural _was a whole different matter.

"Hang on," Frankie cut into the silence with a frown, "Did she just say C4?"

Silence raged among the teens, everyone recalling the last few words of their teacher for a few moments.

"Oh _fuck!_"

* * *

As we were still going to spend the night before moving on, finding some water and food was pretty necessary. The monster-horse had eventually gotten up and found some scarce grass to nibble on, even though he had to climb up some rocks and look like a fool as he tried to eat. But I was jealous. At least he had some damn food, even if it wasn't a lot.

And then he'd just laid down to chill, pleased as a monster could be with having found some withering grass. I'm pretty sure he was mocking me, really. Smug because he could eat grass and I couldn't.

Little fucking asshole, he was.

Kyle had sobered up rather well and had even volunteered to go look a bit further up the mountain while I took a nap, because, well, fuck you. That's why. If I can't have food, I'm damn well going to have a nap.

And I did appreciate the rest, despite the sudden longing for that fluffy poof the little peop- _elves_ had offered. Could really use some of that, I'll admit as much.

But when I heard quiet steps approaching the cave through the haze of almost-sleep, an unholy sense of utter paranoia crept over me. I couldn't help it, and despite logic telling me to calm the fuck down, my hand flew to the empty place where my sword had been hanging earlier on. And it was only then I realized I'd lost it.

If that was someone other then Kyle, someone wanting to rip me to shreds, I was done for. I had nothing to defend myself with and even so, my shoulders were fucked beyond belief. I was toast, dead meat. And knowing that made definite angst crawl up my spine again, just as suffocating as it'd been down in those damned caves.

So, imagine my paranoid surprise when the timid face of Laura popped up and Kyle soon followed, looking quite a lot like a confused puppy as he stood there, hands empty and face twisted into a grimace of who knew what. Then again, his face had done that more and more often as he realized this wasn't just bullshit.

After he'd realized just how serious things were, his face took on that grimace quite a lot, really.

I call that amusing.

"Laura?"

I grimaced at how my voice cracked, panic slowly leaving me and making room for that annoying exhaustion again. The girl in question just offered a meek smile and stepped closer, eyes instantly finding the bleeding mess that I call my shoulders.

"Hi. Heard you're still pretty bad at taking care of yourself," she said calmly as a small, curious-looking skunk hopped along to make up the most awkward group I've ever seen.

Laura + Kyle + skunk = ?

"Can't deny that," I mused and leaned back against the saddle I used as 'pillow' again, offering a grin, "I admit nothing, though,"

The tiny brunette chuckled softly and took a few steps closer, monster-horse lifting it's head as she did and sending her one of those hostile, 'I-really-_really-_want-to-step-on-you' looks it did so well. How anything could want to step on Laura, though, I can't understand. Then again, I suppose I can sort of see some logic. She was short – elves were short. She might not be quite that short, but still. I don't think that monster had much good experience with anything short.

Ah, love in the air.

Then again, maybe not. I don't exactly sense a life-long friendship brewing between them, if just because that horse definitively held grudges. No matter how nice Laura was, I don't think that horse will ever be friendly with anything short.

"You should come further up the mountain with me. Better shelter, even some water. Maybe I can even fix those... uh, huge bleeding gashes there a bit," she said and knelt beside me, inspecting the bleeding piece of shit that was my shoulder with obvious dislike.

I'll say she even looked a bit green, but hey. They look nasty as fuck. Some fucking winged freak tried to rip them apart and did a pretty good job, so it's not that surprising. But, I gotta say. The armor had done some and even so, I think I'm becoming numb to pain. Things generally hurt a lot less than they'd ever done before.

One would think such gashes would have me rolling around in a corner and screaming, but it was just a constant, growling ache. When I sat still, that is.

"How would you be able to fix them?" I asked as the thought struck me, finding myself a bit skeptical as I caught Laura glancing over at the glaring monster-horse.

She looked like she'd just gotten here – how could she have any damn supplies?

"I s-suppose you could call it a starter-kit. A-apparently, I was appointed the rather depressing job of being improvised medical person at the m-moment," she stated and offered a timid smile as she stepped back, that stutter back again.

Compared to how it usually was, though, I'll call myself impressed. But according to that thing an old friend always said; '_W__hen the going gets tough, the tough get going._'

Laura, it seemed, was tougher than she looked.

* * *

Unlike others, Riot had ended up between the mountains, having reached the path they were originally headed for. The path between the mountains, leading to _De Daude's Sjö_ or The Lake of the Dead. The pass wasn't quite sealed yet, but the ice was slowly crawling down from the mountain and aiming to block it.

In a few days, the whole thing would be sealed off, even she could see that.

As the mare slowed down, Riot gave herself a moment to catch her breath. It'd been surprisingly tiresome to cling to a sprinting horse and, if the drenched mare was anything to go by, quite tiresome to sprint as well. The proud animal's head hung low and she was clearly winded, but continued walking on.

Eslir, poor little bastard, didn't look too pleased either and shook out his fur as he followed, no one speaking for a few moments. Everyone was trying to collect themselves, calm down after the near-death that'd just been over their heads. Those dreadful creatures' screeches was still echoing, the mountains stretching up on either side of them just making it worse.

"You think they're okay?" Riot asked quietly after moments of nothing but desperate panting, breaking the silence and sending echoes ahead of them through the narrow path between and under the ice. Almost like a hallway of ice.

Eslir looked up at her, unable to hide the uncertainty for a moment, yet was quick to put on a false calm.

Yet, Riot had seen.

"I'm sure they're fine," he said soothingly, glancing over at the sword the girl was clutching in her hands.

Only then did she seem to become aware of it, glancing down on the flawless steel and frowning as the runes along the side was glowing faintly. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the sword missed it's actual owner. But she'd seen the same thing in her dagger – when she'd thrown it at a tree to improve her aim, it'd been glowing every single time she pulled it back out. It only stopped when she got it into her hands.

Strange, indeed, but she supposed weapons created by the black elves did hold a certain magic. Then again, didn't hurt to be sure.

"Why is it glowing?" she asked and turned it over, seeing the runes on the other side glowing as well. Faintly, but very much noticeable.

"Your weapons are tied. It reaches out for it's owner. All weapons made by the Svartálfar are tied to the people they are made for, they hold a soul inside. The further away, the more distressed it becomes. The lighter the glow, the healthier the owner. The darker the glow... the worse it is," Eslir explained shortly, earning himself a look from Riot.

"... what happens when the owner dies?"

"When the owner of a weapon dies..." Eslir started, pausing and glancing up at her, "... the soul inside and the glow dies out with what men have described as the most haunting shriek there is,"

He got no more words from the redhead.

* * *

Tuesday, typically enough, had ended up going in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to go. Instead of heading straight for the mountain, she'd just followed the road that led around the entire place.

It'd take longer, but unbeknownst to her, it was pretty much meant to be. Because the second she rounded the corner of a rather large cliff and properly left the battle-field behind, a stag that stood there became visible, tall and proud and watching her more like a hawk than anything else. Her instant reaction was to reach for her own weapon – a well-done spear, sharp around the edges and a quite versatile weapon. A versatile weapon for a changing owner.

But before she could even draw her weapon, her horse gave in. The stallion knelt, offering a heart-wrenching cry as it did. Tuesday felt her heart skip a beat and was quick to jump off, instantly at it's side, eyes wide as she watched the horse fall to the ground.

It was only then she noticed the huge gashes running along it's side. She knew they'd had a few close ones, but she hadn't been aware of any hits. In an instant, she felt tears pricking in the corner of her eyes and glanced down at the wounded animal. Large gashes that ran from it's shoulder to it's hind, torn straight through hide and muscle. Blood was gushing out and when she looked down at herself, she spotted a few similar gashes on her own leg.

And she couldn't even feel it.

With a choked sob, she knelt beside the stallion and reached out a shaking hand towards it's neck. The animal just gave her a comforting neigh, eyes wiser than they should as he laid his head down and breathed, taking more comfort in the hand resting heavily on his neck than one would think.

He knew he'd die, that much was obvious. It was just that time and unlike people, he found it strangely easy to accept such a thing. He'd had many riders, protected them all with everything he had. He was a loyal one, but it seemed not even loyalty managed to defend his newest rider from those wretched crows.

The stallion had smelled her blood as the crow had tore it's claws into both of them, drawing a gash through him and through his rider as it did. She was lucky, though – the armor had taken the worst of the hit. His hadn't quite managed to do the job. It had done some, enabled him to run away and bring her to moderate safety. But that was about it.

And as his rider crawled closer, arms wrapping around his neck and trying to hide her sobs, the stallion wondered if every horse that had died on the battlefield had gotten to feel such love from their rider. Even though they'd been together for such a short time, it seemed the girl had gotten attached.

And if the stallion had to be honest, so had he.

He might just have been an animal, but he was an animal of the other worlds. Those distant relatives that lived on Earth didn't possess the intelligence and understanding of things that the animals in the other worlds did. The horses on Earth were intelligent creatures, surely. But the horses of the other worlds surpassed them by far in that area.

They wouldn't have understood such devotion from a human, wouldn't have understood how rare it was. They'd have appreciated it, but they wouldn't have been able to understand how lucky they were if they had felt such love in their dying moments.

But he did and as he did, he thanked the Gods. Because they'd blessed him with a good rider – one with a pure soul and a purer heart.

As the stallion found his breaths growing shorter and the world becoming colder, he couldn't help but muse on how well the rider fit her role in the game. He offered another neigh as she pulled away slightly, cheeks stained with tears as she stroked his head, whispering quietly to him. Such a comforting voice, such quiet words.

The loss of blood was quickly becoming too much, though, and it was only minutes later the stallion drew it's last breath. The first death of many, the first to leave the battlefield behind completely.

It was only then Tuesday allowed herself to really cry. Because from her point of view, someone had just given their life for her. Be it an animal or not, that had been one of her friends. Over the days they'd traveled, they'd had _fun._ Maybe she got attached too quickly, maybe she was just being stupid. But she'd just watched someone die for her and it hurt, it hurt to be dragged straight into reality like that.

They were at war. There would be death.

"Do not weep for a warrior, young Player,"

The voice snapped the girl out of her misery and she quickly lifted her head, hands shaking as she kept her hand on the stallion. He was so still under her hands then, but she couldn't let him go completely. She just couldn't.

"W-who are you?" she choked out, eyes darting to the spear on the ground beside her as the adrenaline, the shock and the emotions slowly left her and let the cuts on her leg be felt.

Stung like a bitch, it did. She could only imagine the pain the stallion had been in as he carried her to safety, as he saved her life.

"I'm your fylgja, player. I'm here to aid you," the stag said softly, bowing it's head and taking a few steps closer, "I mean you no harm. But you must leave – _Ný _died bravely, but the smell of death will bring enemies,"

"Are you saying I should just leave him?!" Tuesday snarled, temper flaring and drawing out some of the similarities in her and her brother.

Death of those precious drew out _anger,_ indeed. It drew out things no one believed about either of them, even if such did pass a lot quicker with Tuesday.

Nick bore the grudges of the family, Tuesday held the grief.

"Unless you want to die, player, I am afraid so. Don't let his death be in vain,"

The young Acqua glanced down at the still stallion, heart aching as she tried to decide what was right and what wasn't. He looked so still, so peaceful, despite the blood staining the ground, staining him and even staining her. For someone in her situation, deciding what to do wasn't easy at all.

Tuesday took a deep breath and gathered herself, breathing through the turmoil and reaching for her spear, throwing the stag a directly burning look as she did so. There were others to save, she wouldn't let others die like that. She'd protect them all, she'd save them.

She would not be yielding on that.

* * *

**THOD - **This is getting sort of depressing, don'tcha think? Now I'm killing things, too. Anyway, yeah. I'm having an utterly shitty day, so I write to calm myself down. Not really helping, actually, since my fuckin' writing it depressing too. But eh, at least I got another chapter up. Surprisingly long, too.

Read&review and all - I'll be back with more depressing bullshit for ya'll.


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